


The Andrews Place

by Thunderbird83



Category: Queen (Band)
Genre: Demonic Possession, Demons, Gen, Haunted Houses, Haunting, Minor Injuries, Minor Violence, Multi, Occult, Out of Body Experiences, Out of Character, Paranormal, ghost - Freeform, supernatural pregnancy
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-06-09
Updated: 2019-07-05
Packaged: 2020-04-23 15:22:30
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 8
Words: 24,749
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/19153714
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Thunderbird83/pseuds/Thunderbird83
Summary: Liz inherits an old house from her late great uncle. During a week of cleaning up and throwing away old junk, they uncover the circumstances surrounding Liz's uncle's death and get more than what they bargained for. A friend of Liz's late uncle stops in to help out, Roger unwittingly becomes a tool for the evil spirit, Liz becomes the target, Freddie, John and Brian go missing.





	1. Chapter 1

The Old Andrews Place

PROLOGUE  
“So how long are we on break from touring?” Liz entered the house as the band members followed her, all of them toting duffel bags and suitcases. She pocketed the house key, threw open the oak door and stepped into the house. 

“About two weeks.” Brian threw his stuff on the couch and began to go through the mail that their neighbor had collected for them. John and Freddie raided the fridge, Roger threw himself on the couch, picked up the remote and began to channel surf. 

“Hello, there’s something for you in here, Liz.” Brian handed the medic a long envelope as he put the rest of the mail on the hutch. 

“I’m getting mail now? All of a sudden I’m important!” Liz accepted the envelope with a smile as she walked over to Freddie and John, smacking them on the butts. “Would you guys stop that! I’m making breakfast for dinner in an hour!” 

“I can’t wait an hour!” Freddie’s voice was muffled as he turned to look at her, beer in his hand. He had just taken a swig of the beer and as he spoke he sprayed Liz a little bit, making her reel back to avoid any other splashback. 

“Oh for god’s sake, Freddie! Say it, don’t spray it!” she yanked a few paper towels off the roll and handed it to him. “Now bend over, display that cute ass of yours, and wipe that up!” 

“Like this?” he bent all the way over, wiggling his butt in her face as he mopped up the little puddle. “How about I just suck it off the floor?” 

“Suck something off of a dirty floor, real clean that way. I hate to see what you think is clean!” Liz gave Freddie’s butt a slap. “Actually, scratch that. I’ve seen how you boys share a bathroom.” 

“John!” the medic tapped John’s shoulder as he shut the door to the fridge, chewing on something with a goofy grin on his face. Liz tried to keep a straight face but John had the best poker face she’d ever seen but now him staring at her, trying to bait her, she could not keep her shoulders from shaking in laughter. “Keep the fridge door shut; you’re going to start attracting penguins!” 

“OK.” was all he said, making a face at her. 

“I love penguins!” Brian chimed in, accepting the beer John handed him. “They’re so cute!” 

“That they are. You three go do your laundry and get a load ready. John and Freddie, you both combine yours to get a full load. Freddie, you are going to take the varnish off that floor if you scrub any deeper.” Liz sank onto the couch near Roger, playfully pushing him over so she could sit. 

“It’s like being a mom to a frat house,” she remarked. Roger picked her up and put her in his lap with an impish grin on his face. “I guess there are some perks.” Liz kissed Roger on the cheek. “Go get your laundry ready, all right?” 

“I’ll have to put you down.” 

“Put me down on the couch; not the floor or anywhere else.” she directed him. Roger obeyed to the letter, putting her down like she was made of glass. He laughed as John went to his room, toting his luggage behind him. Brian and Freddie went next, the latter dumping a paper towel into the trash and blowing Liz a raspberry to embellish his point. She laughed and returned it, slitting open the envelope. 

“Dear Liz, this is to inform you that your great-uncle Wilfred Andrews died and has.. blah blah blah… he bequeaths to you an old… oh that’s interesting.” 

“What’s interesting?” Brian and Roger came back into the room as John filled up the canvas laundry bag. Freddie had already put in a load and started the washer so he came thumping up from the basement with a smirk on his face. 

“Miss me?” Roger plopped on the couch next to Liz, putting his arm around her shoulders. 

“Always do,” she said absently. “My great uncle died and has left to me his property that we never even knew that he had.”

“Where is it?” 

“It’s about an hour and a half away from here.. about thirty minutes from an old town-well it used to be a town called Webb Heights. Apparently it’s a tall, dark, gothic Victorian monstrosity that I can either keep or sell...” 

“Interesting!” Freddie popped the top on another beer bottle. Liz glanced up to see Freddie in the recliner, tilting it back and inhaling half the bottle in one sip. John settled in beside Liz as Brian sat in the other recliner. 

“At the rate you’re going, Freddie, you’ll be drinking your dinner.” Freddie belched loudly. “I couldn’t be more attracted to you than I am now!” 

“Ah, she admits it!” he laughed with everyone else. “I have the charm!” 

“You have beer fumes emanating, Freddie. You’re mistaking that for charm!” she rifled through the papers the lawyer sent her. 

“We’re sorry to hear about the death of your great uncle,” John said benevolently. “did you know him well?”

“No, I never knew him. My mom and dad thought he was a real head case and wouldn’t let me or my siblings near him. I’m going to get on the horn to the lawyer but before I do that, how about we take a week to go up to the house and get it ready to sell?”

“Road trip!” Roger exclaimed. “I’m in!”

“Good! Guys?”

“Yeah, we’ll go,” they nodded in unison. “could be fun. Is it near a lake?”

“No. There is a public swimming hole but from what I remember it was closed for several years.” she thumbed through the map. “Get your laundry finished by ten AM tomorrow and we can be there in time for lunch.” 

“Yes, Mom!” Freddie picked up the TV remote. “Make sure you do your laundry too, practice what you preach!” 

Liz rolled her eyes and sighed. “If you nag me tonight I won’t buy you all ice cream tomorrow.” she stuck her tongue out at him. 

“Oh, try again!” he was unruffled. “You can’t guilt trip me!” 

“Meh. What’s on the boob tube?” 

“From what I see it’s the same old thing,” Brian said unexpectedly, staring at her chest. “a rerun.” 

“Cheeky!” Liz’s chest was on display in a low cut blouse. She caught Roger staring at it as well. “Roger, your tongue’s hanging out!” the medic moved over to John on the couch, forcing Roger to remove his arm but putting her legs on his lap instead. The bassist put his arm around her, his hand on her belly as he kissed her cheek. 

“I’ve never seen two exes be so flirty with each other before,” Brian glanced at the clock on the stove. “you two are something special.” 

“I noticed that too,” Freddie spoke up, unlacing his shoes and kicking them off. “very unusual.” 

“Aha! Freddie Mercury has a rare moment of lucidity!” Liz teased as John started laughing. 

“Oh fuck off!” 

**

“Trough’s up, guys!” Liz called but nobody was stampeding towards the stovetop. She marched into the living room with a pot and spatula in hand to find out they were all dozing off and ignoring her. Grinning to herself, she held up the pot like a dinner bell and rattled it with the spatula, making everyone rouse. “Come and get it, my four little piggies!” 

“Yay, food!” Roger was the first to pick up his plate and get in line. He was usually the first in line when food or alcohol was involved, Liz thought. 

They were used to Liz’s buffet style of cooking; she wouldn’t wait on anyone if her life depended on it. Freddie tried to guilt trip her into waiting on him hand and foot but she wouldn’t bite. John watched his ex spar with Freddie and Roger with admiration; he only occasionally joined in but with Liz there he rarely had to speak up at all unless he really wanted to. 

After supper they all watched some TV while the first load of laundry was put into the dryer, the next load was rotated in. Brian had a moment with the washer, forgetting how to load it so Roger had to show him how. 

“This is a front loader so there is no agitator,” he began reciting what Liz had told him to do. “fill it up to about here, shut the door, put the detergent in here,” the drummer pulled out a little shelf, picked up the detergent bottle and filled it to the line. “push down on the knob here, rotate it to normal wash, then pull it out. Listen for the click of the water pump,” they heard a sharp clicking sound and heard the water start rushing in. “there you go.” 

“Great, thanks.” Roger held out his hand.

“Where’s my tip?” 

“I’ll give you one: get upstairs!” 

Freddie turned from loading the dryer and tried to race Roger upstairs but failed. John peered over at the maps Liz had been sent by the lawyer as she tried to set an itinerary for the next day. 

“You never knew him at all?” 

“No. Mom and Dad didn’t want us near him, thinking he was a raving loon. They never talked about him at all.” 

“That’s too bad. You might be missing something.” 

“Well, if I know my parents I’m missing a lot. I’m just looking at the details of his death.” the others filed back in, sprawling out in their chairs and the other end of the couch. 

“So what happened to him?” 

“Nobody knows. He was found dead in the house when a neighbor checked on him. Apparently he had a diagnosis of early onset Alzheimer’s and the doctor thought he died of that. Alzheimer’s doesn’t kill.” Liz furrowed her brow in thought. “he was a healthy 74-year-old man with early onset Alzheimer’s. It doesn’t really mess with your head until it gets advanced to some degree. I have a copy of the death certificate here… it calls the death simple respiratory failure but that doesn’t add up.” 

“How’s that?”

“Well, Brian, there was no other cause of death to be seen and it was declared natural causes but something’s up. There’s no reason for a healthy 74-year-old to just suddenly drop dead.” 

“A mystery,” Freddie’s eyes lit up. “let’s probe further shall we?”

“Yes, bend over and this’ll only take a moment.” Brian offered, his blue eyes lighting up. 

“I believe I already felt that and it was nothing to write home about!” she shot back laughingly. 

“You bitch!” 

“All right, all right. So how about we all hit the sack?”   
he  
“Right. I’m going to make sure the laundry goes through and I’ll head to bed.” John offered much to everyone’s relief. 

“All right. Goodnight, John.” Liz kissed him as she got up. 

**

Later on that night John finished the laundry, sorted it and put it on Liz’s bureau as she slept in bed. He looked over at her as she slept, the moonlight came in from her bay window and framed her perfectly. The bassist still had some feelings for his ex girlfriend and always liked watching her sleep at night. Quietly he slipped beside her on the bed, taking his hand in hers, exhaling his breath on her neck to tickle her. 

Liz did not respond as she was too deeply asleep to notice her midnight visitor. A little disappointed, John traced a circle on the back of her hand that he held as he observed her eyes moving underneath her lids which indicated she was dreaming. There was something about her as she slept that John found enchanting but he couldn’t quite place it. Maybe it was the serenity and peacefulness that she emanated. 

He was already clothed in his pajamas so he didn’t think that she would mind if he joined her. Liz was never averse to another person in her bed. John was comfortable so he settled in beside her, lying his head on her pillow as she breathed quietly, still dreaming away. The bassist pressed a kiss to her temple, muttering a goodnight. 

**

“All right, let’s get this shit train started!” At ten AM the next day everyone was packed and in the new van Roger had bought off a friend a few months ago. He and Freddie stowed their suitcases, Brian added his, John put his on top of everyone’s as Liz secured down her belongings. There was still enough room as when they got close to their destination they would do a grocery run. 

“Ready?” Liz locked up the house and took her seat in the back with Freddie. “Why is it I’m always next to him?” she play-whined, pretending to shove Freddie aside. 

“Children, please.” Roger started up the van. Brian was riding shotgun, Freddie and Liz were side by side in the middle seat and John was on the other end of Liz. “John, let me know if things get too rowdy back there.” 

“Will do.” 

“If you fart on me, you’re dead!” Freddie teased as Roger put the van in reverse and backed out of the driveway. 

“Women don’t fart!” she protested. “At least not until they eat beans!” 

“Guess what I had this morning?!”

“Augh! Crack a window, John!” the trio in the back lost themselves to a helpless fit of the giggles. 

An hour and a half later they completed the grocery run in the town of Webb Heights. With Liz giving Roger the directions they pulled up at a gothic Victorian mansion. 

“Three stories high, well including that little turret on top with the circular eye window…” she muttered. 

“Your uncle lived here?” all of them were staring. The first story was a simple square, the second one had eaves so it was pointed in front. A farmer’s porch surrounded the main entrance and wrapped around the whole front of the house. 

“Yeah and it’s pretty much unchanged since the last time I saw it.” Liz pulled out her suitcase and duffel bag while Brian picked up the groceries. “It’s got a modern kitchen but no electronic entertainment. What it does have is a one and a half story library with a pool table.” 

“This will be interesting.” Roger and John picked up their luggage as did Freddie while Liz produced the key to the house from her purse. 

“If I remember right I have to jiggle the lock.” she gave a couple of jiggles and the lock popped open. 

“Well, who’s ready for an adventure?” Freddie said warily as they walked inside.


	2. 1

1: Exploring the house

“Well, I think your great uncle had deep pockets to keep a place like this!” Freddie chimed immediately, appraising the front foyer with his eyes. The wood paneling needed polishing but other than that it looked like it had been kept in good shape. “Looks pretty reasonable to me.” some faded portraits were on the wall but Liz knew nothing of them. Freddie looked at one of the portraits, flicking aside a small dust bunny on top of the picture frame. John walked by casually, his arms loaded with grocery bags as Roger followed. 

“You’d like this, Freddie. My great uncle was an art collector. He was fond of Renoir for some reason. Oh hang on a second,” Liz bent down, her arm shot out and she snagged something. “this is cool!” she started to giggle, picking up something from the kick paneling. 

“What is it?” Freddie peered over Liz’s shoulder. 

“My great uncle kept a little garter snake around instead of a cat and I just found him.” she turned around with a medium size green, white and yellow striped garter snake. “This is Barney.” 

“Yipe!” Freddie reeled back as Liz put the snake around her shoulders. “You actually touch that?” 

“I love snakes. I had a boa constrictor-or my grandpa did. Her name was Crystal and she ate mice for him. Let’s go scare everyone else.” the singer wasn’t used to snakes but he didn’t think that the one Liz was holding was venomous or vicious. He ventured to touch the snake’s head which accepted his touch readily, flicking a tongue out. The singer flinched but seeing that Liz didn’t even react he calmed down a bit. 

“I have got to see this.” Freddie tailed Liz into the kitchen, wondering what the others would do when they discovered she was holding a live snake. 

“Liz, what was your-oh god!” John jumped. “Where did you find that?” 

“Oh damn!” Roger turned to look at what John was asking and dropped a box of cereal. Brian shut the refrigerator door as Liz turned to him. She flicked her tongue in time to the snake’s making the guitarist laugh loudly. 

“Oh, what a nice speciman,” he took the snake from Liz and put it around his own shoulders. “he’s a big one. See how he flicks his tongue out? That’s how he smells, y’know.” Freddie shook his head with a little smirk on his face. Sometimes Brian took him by surprise by what he did and didn’t think was scary. John looked like Freddie felt as Liz took back the snake, settling on her shoulders like he was there to stay. 

“Barney here has been in this house for the past five years. I remember my mom talking about him once during a rare visit here.” Liz mentioned, blinking in the early afternoon sunlight from the kitchen. Her uncle had really spruced up the kitchen, she thought. It was very modern looking with stainless steel and maple cabinets in light blue. 

“Really? Looks like he was well cared for.” Brian stroked the snake’s head, grinning as he flicked his tongue out to smell the guitarist better. Barney’s eyes were dark like Freddie’s, he mused to himself. The singer and John had amused themselves by finishing putting the groceries away, then they went out to the van to get their things. 

“You like those creepy snakes?” Roger was incredulous. “Look at it! Look at the tongue! Those beady little eyes just waiting to get me!” he wrung his hands a little bit, remembering how his sister and her friends once terrorized him with a garter snake. Not that he would ever mention it to his friends; better if they thought he was just afraid of them in general. 

“Yeah Roger, this is going to get you!” Liz jumped at Roger with the snake causing the drummer to fall on his butt swearing loudly. 

“I’ll get you for that!” 

“How about you and Brian finish putting away the groceries while I find Barney’s terrarium?” Liz took the snake from Brian. “How about I feed you some nice mealworms to eat my slithery friend?” she let his tongue tickle her nose as the others looked at her like she’d lost her mind. 

“Nice place isn’t it?” John glanced around the kitchen which looked like it had been renovated not too long ago. The house itself was over a hundred years old but to his eyes it had a nice balance between old and modern. “Looks like top of the line appliances in here.” 

“What a great idea. Come on, Rog, let’s go claim our rooms.” Brian swatted at Roger, giving him a hand up, then they took their luggage to the second floor bedrooms. 

Liz crossed the hallway to the living room. “Good old uncle Charles kept this place in good shape, eh?” the terrarium was on a small table near the couch. “From what I remember that fireplace is back to back with the library.” Freddie walked into the room quietly, noticing how bit it was at first glance. He glanced at his friend, then walked over and threw open the curtains to let the sun shine in. There was a small daybed right under the window with several cushions so Freddie decided to sit on it for a few minutes. He stretched himself out grandly on the comfortable daybed, imagining himself as the proprietor and having several servants under his command. The sunlight was right at the windows so he reclined back, letting it hit his face full on. Freddie sighed happily, hoping that Liz would decide to keep the place. 

Upstairs John chose the turret room, admiring how bright and airy it felt to him. The room was comfortably big with two king size beds, an oak dresser, and the turret part itself was accessible by a small ladder nailed to the wall. John put his suitcase under the bureau for now as he took the blue and white striped curtains and opened them up so he could look out. It wasn’t much to see but a green lawn with a partially obscured view due to the porch roof. 

Liz’s uncle had decorated the room in a light sand color with a tropical theme. John saw portraits of beaches with seashells, etc, and the carpet was a lush green. Under the big picture window was a love seat in white leather. John picked up one of the tan colored pillow shams he’d found in the closet while making the beds, then tossed it onto the sofa. The bassist had found two sets of sheets and a few duvets in the closet so now one bed was made up in light green, the other made up in a grayish purple. 

“What do you think, Bri?” John came into the other room. “There’s a private bathroom in there; the whole room’s in a tropical theme. I like it.” 

The other big bedroom Brian was in had been painted a soft yellow with imagery of sunflowers all around. Brian had been tucking in the last blanket of the second bed which had a color theme of light orange. Both bedrooms were in a contrast to each other; one was done in cool tones and the other was done in warm tones. The bedrooms were laid out exactly the same but excepting the turret; the second bedroom had a small skylight. 

“I like this place very much.” Brian grinned, clasping John on the shoulder. “A few days of light cleaning and we’ll be very happy here.” 

“That’s right! Let’s go downstairs to see if Roger’s done yet.” John had helpfully brought Roger’s suitcase upstairs and parked it near one of the beds. Brian had done the same with Liz’s belongings. 

Lazily Freddie opened up his eyes after a few minutes as Liz came in with snake in her hands. The living room was big on its own with two leather couches, a love seat and a recliner. There was a piano in the corner and had several low bookshelves; a series of paintings decorated the walls. Liz checked the fleece blankets that were on the backs of the couches to make sure that they had been washed recently. 

“Charles really had good taste,” she told the snake as she walked over to his terrarium and plugged in his little electric rock he could lie on. “in you go.” the medic gave the snake some dinner, leaving him to it as Brian and John clambered downstairs. Roger came inside from taking the rest of the groceries out of the van, finding his friends all congregated in the living room. 

“There’s only two bedrooms up there!” the drummer looked perplexed. 

“There’s enough room for all of us here, Roger. There are two king size beds in each room. Besides, Uncle Charlie was not big on entertaining. I never stayed here overnight but at least each room has its own bathroom. Did you decide to take the turret room?” Liz followed him, raising the solar shades at the far end so they could see the room better. The library was on the north side of the house so it was always cool and dark. 

“The room with that little crawl space on top? Yeah, I took it.” John answered. 

“I thought you’d like that. For some reason my uncle didn’t like to go up there.” 

“Why is that?” 

“I don’t know. My family just thought he was being eccentric,” Liz shrugged. “to each their own.” 

“Come on in here!” Brian called to the rest of the band. “Your uncle has an amazing book collection.” 

“What was your uncle’s full name?” everyone now came into the library, Roger openly gawking at the volumes that lined the shelves. He crossed over to the rolling ladder and began to push himself around on it, the old wheels creaking and groaning. 

“Don’t do that-those wheels need grease.” John cautioned, making Roger stop altogether. 

“His full name was Charles Joseph Andrews. He was on my mother’s side and that was her maiden name.” the library had floor to ceiling bookcases covering three walls and in one side a spiral staircase connected the first and second levels together. There was a small balcony with railings so people could peruse books. Brian had already climbed up there and he was turned to where the stairs were, looking out the picture window out on the grounds. 

“Wow!” Freddie pulled out an art history book. “Your uncle must have been loaded!” 

“This house has been in the family since Queen Victoria’s time. It was passed down through three generations and could be passed down to me if I decide to keep it.” Liz put her hands on her hips. She made enough money touring with the boys but knew that the property was grandfathered to her and there were taxes involved, not to mention homeowner’s insurance every year. At least the property wasn’t near the water; she didn’t need that kind of premium on the insurance. On the other hand it was highly desirable land and she would be able to get a tax write off on the house’s equity. 

“You’re not selling it?” 

“I don’t know yet,” she admitted. “this place seems haunting to me where something is going to happen.” that idea had been in her head since she first set foot in the house. It might have been just her but it seemed like the house was waiting for something or someone to get to the bottom of its mystery. A property like that one would definitely have a lot of history to go through, she allowed. 

John walked over to the medic. “Are you psychic?” his green eyes locked with her gray ones like he was trying to read her mind. 

“No, I don’t think so.” she looked uncertain. “Anyway, let’s get down to business.” 

Two hours passed by, during that time an unseen presence watched Liz as she ransacked her late relation’s personal correspondence, sorting through all the documents and deciding which to keep and which to throw away. She would be the one it would prey on, it decided. The entity wasted no time in its decision, launching an attack right away. 

“Freddie, that’s a Picasso print-” Liz was in the middle of explaining when a explosion of images infiltrated her mind that made absolutely no sense. She made a noise of surprise and put her hand up to her head like she could take the images out manually, blinking rapidly, bowing her head like she’d been struck physically. 

“Liz, are you OK?” Roger was the first one to reach her in the library. “What is it?” he grabbed her arm and steered her to sit on the couch as she removed her hand, eyes darting wildly, trying to make sense of what had just happened to her. 

“I don’t know,” she glanced up at Roger with an expression of confusion. “I just had this barrage of images in my own head and they didn’t pertain to me.” 

“What were they images of?” the drummer put a hand on her shoulder to support her. Liz exhaled slowly, a technique she’d learned to keep her asthma at bay when she was stressed. It was a good stress managing technique and prevented her from going into a full blown attack when she remembered to do it. Everyone in the band knew it, often coaching her to just breathe deeply when stress was upon her. 

“I couldn’t see all of them clearly but I know I saw Charlie in it,” she inhaled and stood up shakily, aided by Roger. “that left me weak in the knees. Anyway,” Roger had her by the waist. “I think I’m about to find out what my uncle died from.” 

“Liz,” Freddie walked over to her, nearly tripping on a stack of books Brian had been checking out. “do you get these random flashes often?” 

“I used to get them all the time when I was younger. I had to block them out mentally when I was a firefighter because they’d get in the way.” she turned a little bit pale and put her hand to her temple as Freddie turned so he was right in front of her. Roger glanced over at them, still sitting on the sofa, Brian was sitting on Charles’s big oak desk and John had been standing near the doorway. 

“Aha! You’re a spirit sensitive.” he proclaimed. “You’ll get the story on your uncle’s death. Do you think he’ll come to you in a dream and you’ll know then?” 

“You’ll want to be really careful though,” John joined them as Brian looked up from the desk. “that could drain you if you’re not prepared.” 

“You two are really open to the possibilities aren’t you?” it was nice to discover two open minded people. Liz picked up a handful of documents and threw them into the garbage bag, tying a knot that Roger would take out to the garage later. Still a little shaky from the supernatural assault on her mind, Liz tried to pick up a stack of books but her muscles would not cooperate, forcing her to drop the books. Brian noticed her little difficulty, getting up and crossing over to her from the desk. She sighed, closing her eyes as the guitarist steered her back over to the couch, sitting her down. 

Brian tilted her chin up, checking her out for anything unusual. “Just breathe, girl.” he coaxed her softly. Liz exhaled quietly and opened up her eyes, watching the guitarist with a faint hint of amusement in her expression. She smiled a little bit as he took one of her hands. “Think you’ll be OK?”

“I’ll be fine.” he gave her a reassuring clasp on her hands then got up and went back to work. 

“This is bullshit!” Roger clearly didn’t believe in the paranormal. The drummer was at a loss to explain Liz’s sudden vision but he knew for sure that it wasn’t due to any paranormal influences. Roger folded his arms and walked to the back of the room while the others carried on their conversation. Freddie’s family were spiritual and he had an open belief that the dead could come back to the living and give them messages. He didn’t have any personal experience with it but his mom had cautioned him on keeping an open mind. 

“Really?” Brian and I are into this to some degree. He’s more of a skeptic but I like to read horror stories and I love ghosts.” John said to everyone’s surprise. 

“Is that why you have the creepy hair?” Liz teased with a smile. John chuckled and took Liz by the waist, pecking her on the cheek. “Oh, well it’s not that creepy.” she giggled for a moment. “I have no idea how to channel this power if that’s what it is or even if my uncle is trying to contact me.” 

“Why don’t we all have supper, eh?” Brian broke in. “You carnivores have what you want and we need to get the first load out to the garage.” 

“OK. I have this first box of correspondence ready to go.” Liz lifted up a two pound box stuffed to the brim with 50-year-old documents that weren’t valid anymore.   
**

When supper was over the five friends settled into the living room, Freddie building a little fire in the fireplace for them. Brian turned on the lamp as he sat back into the leather couch which made several creaks and groans. Freddie grabbed Liz by the waist as he sat down, taking her and settling her in between him and the couch. Laughing, Liz cozied up to Freddie as John sat down next to Brian on the other couch. Roger stretched out on the recliner, fluffing out his shaggy hair, his eyes half closed. 

“So Liz, tell us about the time you first started having those visions.” Freddie prompted gently, playing with one of her loose curls in a way to get her to relax more. 

“I was very young, about 10 years old. My great grandparents started dying off around that time frame. I saw each one in my dreams at first around when they died, then the visions started coming to me when I was awake. It’s funny, as Charlie seemed to sense that I had a gift, or a second sight thing. My family thought he was the family nut job so I didn’t know him at all. I only came up here once or twice as a youngster but I only remember playing in the yard.” 

“Did you get any visions when we were at college?” Brian asked. 

“Some. Remember when that student died in a car accident? I looked at him a few days before and had an unsettling thought that he would be dead within a couple of days. My realization came true. When I worked in the firehouse I had a lot of visions-the dead firefighters, dead patients, you name it. Quickly I learned to block it out or I would have gone mad.” 

“So how is that you haven’t had any visions until right now?” 

“I honestly don’t know, John. I think that because we’re all on the road and performing there’s no time for me to get in tune with a place. What I know is that when I get these visions, depending on the length of time, it completely drains me.” 

“Does it?” Roger perked up a little bit. 

“Yeah. So if there’s a mild increase in my heart rate and I’m not dreaming or being physically active, I’m having a vision.” she informed him. “Roger can tell the difference.” 

“Damn right I can.” he stretched his arms above his head with a lazy grin. John had already started to doze off as Freddie looked at Liz thoughtfully. 

“How can you tell when a vision is coming on? Do you faint?” 

“If it’s really intense I will. For a random flash like I just had I don’t lose consciousness. I just get a little flustered.” Liz informed them. “Being in this old place with the memories and the mystery of how Charlie died is going to be interesting.” 

“What time is it?” Freddie picked up Liz’s left arm at the wrist, tilting it so he could read her watch. “It’s almost 10. I’m getting tired so we should make tracks upstairs.” he playfully kissed her wrist then turned her hand so her palm faced him and he kissed that too. 

“You know that’s an erogenous zone, right?” 

“A what?”

“Put it to you this way, Freddie: An erogenous zone is sexual. The wrist has a nerve ending which goes directly down into the clit.” 

“Oh! If I touch you here you’ll get turned on?” the singer’s eyes lit up mischievously, leaning into Liz’s neck, letting her black hair get into his face. 

“Yeah. That doesn’t mean you can’t use some skill!” she giggled as Freddie put his lips to her wrist again. “I don’t get turned on so easily most of the time.” 

“Come on, let’s get to bed.” John nudged Liz and Freddie, standing up. 

“All right, don’t push me, Freddie!” they marched upstairs with Roger in the lead. The guys changed up with Liz doing her routine in one of the bathrooms. When she came out wearing a very short nightgown she attracted some stares which she was used to. Freddie catcalled her, John wolf whistled, and Brian gave her a saucy look that clearly said he thought she looked incredibly sexy. Roger pretended to spank her on the butt for a moment as he walked by her. 

“Who’s going to be my bedfellow for tonight?” Liz thought that Roger had been a little sullen since they arrived and wanted to be sure that he was all right. “Roger!” 

The blonde glanced at her, a slightly wolfish smile lit up his face. “Oh, its my turn?” he took off her green satin bathrobe and steered her over to the bed. He and Brian had made up the beds as soon as they had arrived so everything was nice and fresh. Liz plunked herself down on the cotton sheets as Roger got in next to her. “This is a nice way to go to sleep; with a beautiful female even if we’re not fucking.” 

“Good thing too,” Brian’s voice drifted over to them. “remember I’m over here.” 

Roger slid into the bed next to Liz, pulling the blankets over himself. “No promises, Bri. Whatever happens happens.” he folded his arms around Liz playfully, necking her a little bit. She giggled as he nearly stuck his nose in her ear. 

“I’m not up for fucking, Roger. I won’t even jack you tonight. Good night, Bri.” Liz turned off the light. “Night, John and Freddie!” 

“Night!” they called back.


	3. 3: Hypnosis

3: Hypnosis

 

The blonde one was asleep so now the entity could start an attack. The assault it had delivered on Liz earlier had just been for starters. Things could get violent really quickly but it liked toying with its victims for a little while first. The girl’s mind was harder to penetrate due to her mental block but it was nothing for the entity, which had been able to break it effortlessly. 

“Roger!” Freddie nearly threw his mike at the drummer who put his drumsticks aside. When Freddie was mad the venue next door knew it. “What the hell was that?”

“I’m sorry-I just-” 

“That was total shit! You’re total shit on that riff!” 

“You calling me shit, mate?” Roger tried to intimidate Freddie but it failed to move him. 

“Yes I am! I don’t know why we hired you on for this band!” 

“We? I was part of this band before you were!” 

“Would you two just stop it!” Brian put his hands to his temples. “I agree with Freddie!” 

“He’s right!” John put his bass aside. “You sucked ass, Roger!” 

“Watch it, little man!” John refused to be intimidated as well. “I don’t think that you’re cut out for this!” 

“Deacy’s right! We might as well just fire you altogether!” Brian raged. Freddie smirked as Brian and John flanked him. 

“We’re unanimous then!” 

“No!” Roger was twisting and turning in the bed which aroused Liz from her sleep. She blinked rapidly a few times then thought she saw something vaguely silvery in the darkness. The medic tried to focus on it but it disappeared before she had a chance to analyze it. Bewildered, Liz chose ignore the figure and concentrate on Roger. 

“Oh my god,” she realized what the figure could possibly mean. John is my consultant on this, he’s more au fait with the paranormal than me, Liz thought to herself. “Roger, hon, wake up.” she shook his shoulder for a moment as he tried to wake up from his nightmare. The medic gave him a hard yank on the arm which did the trick. 

The drummer gasped, his eyes open wide. Breathing like he’d just run a marathon, Roger turned to see Liz looking at him with concern. “Oh my god..” he clutched at her convulsively as if she would disappear into thin air. 

“It’s all right, just breathe, Roger.” he gave a snort of involuntary laughter. 

“Usually it’s me telling you that.” 

“Shhh. Let’s not wake up Brian, all right?” 

“Good idea. Do you want to talk about it or can it wait for morning?” she asked, eyes full of concern for her friend. Roger was touched by Liz and took one hand, allowing himself to let his guard down and really address what was bothering him. She smoothed back the hair from his face as Roger wrestled with himself

“I better talk about it now or I might not remember it.” he told her the entire dream, facing her in the bed, rubbing his hands all over hers. Liz reached over to dab a little tear away from Roger’s face once as she listened to what he had to say. The medic knew it was already quite a strain on the drummer as his voice sounded a little higher pitched and distressed. It might have been one nightmare but one was all it took and it sounded like it really hurt him. Her eyes widened as he told her how the rest of the band told him he was no good, etc. 

“Don’t listen to what those dreams tell you,” she coaxed him as he closed his eyes for a long moment. “you know we all love you very much and would do anything for you.” 

“Sometimes I get to second guessing myself-”

“Don’t. What good will it do you? If we say it’s OK, then it is. Don’t mire yourself down in self doubt all right?” 

“Oh god,” Roger’s shoulders shook for a moment. Liz leaned over and ran the back of her hand on the side of Roger’s face. He closed his eyes and submitted to his friend’s caresses, allowing himself to forget about the dream. The drummer sighed, taking Liz’s slender hand in his own calloused one for a long moment. “Liz-”

“Shhhhh, hon. It’s all right.” she whispered. “Sometimes we all need comfort. I get mine from you guys. When I curl up with any one of you on the couch it means I am feeling vulnerable and need to know that you care about me so that’s why I do it. Now I think we need to get some sleep.” 

“All right. I’ll try.” Roger put his head against Liz’s chest as she put her arms around him. Affectionately Liz put her fingers through his hair which seemed to soothe him and he was back asleep within ten minutes. 

The entity separated itself from Roger, infuriated that Liz had managed to negate the effects of the mental attack. Liz seemed to hear or see something and she looked right at the entity. In the darkness of the room the medic saw something which looked like a silvery wavering amorphous blob. She paled but did not waver in her determination to protect her friend. “I will not let you hurt him.” she hissed. The entity sensed a real challenge regarding her so it would be gleefully escalating the attacks. 

As it disappeared Liz relaxed as Roger tightened his grip on her. “We’re in for some real trouble.” she sighed.   
**

The next morning Brian woke up to find that Roger and Liz were curled up together on their bed. Liz inhaled slowly as she began to stir.“Is it my imagination or is Roger clinging to you? Did he have a bad dream?” he knew that Roger had his moments of self doubt but those were few and far between. What could be bothering them on their vacation, he wondered. 

“Shhh,” Liz opened up her eyes. “Roger had a bad night. Brian, I think we’re going to have a hard time in the paranormal here.” 

“We’ll see.” was all he would say. Liz looked genuinely worried about Roger so Brian began to get a little concerned as well. “Do you want the bathroom first?” 

“Sure.” she freed herself from Roger then went into the bathroom to take a shower. The medic scrubbed up from head to toe, wrapping herself in a lilac colored towel, still wondering on the entity that she saw last night. Liz did not get a good vibe from it and wondered just how far it was going to go to do whatever it wanted. She needed John and would consult him over breakfast if possible. John was already up and downstairs getting breakfast so she wanted to get him alone. It wouldn’t do Roger any good if he suspected the nightmares were paranormal in nature. 

“Good morning, my lovelies!” Freddie chirped from the turret room, fresh out of the shower. He toweled off his hair and hung it up on the towel rack. “More things to sort through today, old pictures to see, decide which books to keep, that sort of thing. I believe I even like Barney the snake.” 

“You’re in a really good mood,” John combed his hair and tied his sneakers on. “sleep really good last night?”

“Yes I did, my dear friend.” Freddie got into his jeans and white t-shirt. The two of them went downstairs, raided the fridge and were halfway through breakfast when Brian and Liz showed up. “Where’s Roger?”

“Roger had a bad night.” Brian said simply as he pulled a bowl and spoon off the side board. Liz went directly to the coffee pot and got herself a pink and white striped mug from the mug tree near the stove. Freddie and John looked a bit taken aback as they perched on the bar stools at the kitchen island. 

“How did he have a bad night? Bad dream?” John passed the cereal box to Freddie as Brian sat next to him.

“He did have a bad dream. I don’t want to get into particulars because it’s his private dream, but he woke up at about 3 or 4 this morning in a panic. I woke up and comforted him then I realized after he went back to sleep that we have a bigger problem on our hands.” she sipped her coffee, giving Freddie a refill. 

“What do you mean?” 

“John, I saw a dark entity last night hovering over Roger. He’s already being victimized.” 

“Oh no,” John moaned. “dark entities mean negative energy. The fact that Roger’s being harassed already means that the entity is going to keep turning up the attacks in intensity. A dark entity’s mission is to divide someone from their friends, turn him against us so that the spirit will have a human slave essentially. We need to keep Roger surrounded with positive energy so the entity can’t break through.” 

“What can we do? Freddie, any ideas?” 

Freddie put his elbows up on the table, looking thoughtfully around. “My mom liked to burn sage; she said it was spiritually cleansing, she also told me that you could contain negative spiritual energy with salt.” 

“I’m going to keep that in mind.” Liz mused, filing that tidbit away for future reference. 

“Good. We need to protect Roger with all we’ve got.” Freddie would march to hell happily himself before he’d let Roger come to any harm. The two of them behaved like long lost brothers towards each other and were the most similar in personalities. Liz smiled to see the devotion to Roger on Freddie’s face.

“Don’t treat him any different,” Brian warned. “he’ll get defensive.” 

“True that.”

“In the meantime, did you experience anything last night in terms of dreams or visions, Liz?”

“No, Freddie. John, I was thinking about my visions. I am really curious as to how my uncle died. Where you factor in,” she could tell he was getting impatient. “do you know anything about hypnotism?” 

John’s eyes lit up. “I do. You want to give that a shot?” 

“Yeah. I want to. Let me go check on Roger first then we’ll take this into the living room.” Liz took a mug of coffee upstairs to entice the drummer out of bed. 

In the bedroom Roger looked like he was sleeping better as Liz sat down on the edge of the bed and waved the mug under his nose. Roger took a deep sniff then his eyes drifted open. “Hey,” Liz greeted him. “you can have coffee in bed or wherever you want it. How do you feel?”

“I’m OK.” he sat up and accepted the mug. The medic measured him up with her eyes. He still looked a bit tired but that would be gone after he finished the coffee. Roger had a lingering unease that she could read behind his pretty blue eyes so she reached out and cuffed him on the shoulder, trying to help him perk up a little bit. He took a sip of his coffee, letting the hot liquid soothe him a little more and he started to feel a little more energized. 

“You look like you’re in better spirits already. The plan for today is get more junk out to the garage for the trash men and John’s going to try hypnotizing me.” 

“Why are you doing that?” the drummer had only heard of people getting hypnotized so they could do stupid tricks before an audience. 

“It was a brainstorm I had this morning, Roger. I want to know what my uncle died of and I can’t wait around for a vision to randomly attack me. This is a more controlled experiment.” 

“All right,” Roger could appreciate Liz wanting to stay in control as long as possible. “let me take a shower and grab a bite, then I’ll watch.” 

“I think we’ll all be watching. John’s never hypnotized anyone before.” she remarked carelessly. “Back that cute butt down to the kitchen for a bite before Brian cleans us out.” 

“All right, milady.” Roger got up to take a shower, asking Liz to bring his mug downstairs so he could finish it there. He took his shower, standing up before the mirror and combing back his hair, trying to keep himself in the positive mindset that Liz had infected him with. “Forget the dream you had last night. It was just a dream.” he assured himself, taking his jeans and putting them on. 

**

Everyone in the kitchen shot sideways glances at Roger while he ate breakfast. Freddie couldn’t help staring at him but he stopped as soon as Brian caught him and stomped on his foot. John was going over the steps to hypnotize someone while Liz sat down at the kitchen island, staring outside as the birds sang near the window. Roger, always a voracious eater, ate his breakfast in a few minutes, glancing to the others to see what they were going to do that day. 

“Well, we are going to do something unorthodox.” Freddie and Liz walked into the living room ahead of everyone else. Brian and Roger followed, accompanied by John. “Are you sure you want to do this?” Freddie, Brian and Roger sat on the couch opposite of the other two, prepared to be the audience for once. 

“I’m eager to see if she actually produces anything valid,” Brian was pretty open minded but tended to be skeptical. Freddie rolled his eyes at his friend as Roger smirked. “never mind us, Liz. We’re just the peanut gallery here.” 

“You always are.” she teased. “I’m sure, John. What do you want me to do?” 

“Lie down and relax.” Liz lay down quietly as everyone watched her, folding her hands across her belly. “Good. I want you to just stay limp, clear your mind of everything. Hand me your necklace, will you?” she took off the big silver colored tear drop pendant necklace Brian had given her. “Focus on that and only on my voice.” he let the pendant swing back and forth. The medic watched it swing idly from side to side, not seeing John who was sitting on the edge of the couch right beside her. Freddie pursed his lips as Brian leaned forward. Roger watched with his mouth slightly open. 

“You’re getting sleepy,” the power of suggestion worked on Liz and she did indeed find her eyelids were getting heavy. “you’re going to respond only to the sound of my voice. Close your eyes and open your mind to your uncle’s death. It was June 6th, ten days ago.” John put the pendant on the side table, peering over at his friend, pausing in order to get her ready for what he wanted her to do next. 

Everyone watched her close her eyes as her breathing grew shallow. Freddie leaned forward eagerly to hear what she had to say while Brian and Roger were more concerned for Liz’s welfare in the experiment. The medic looked like she was sleeping away on the couch but John began to ask her questions. Her replies were in a slow tone of voice that sounded very lethargic. 

“Liz, can you hear me?”

“Yes.” her tone was completely monotonous, speaking as though she was in a dream, Brian noticed. Freddie exchanged a look with the guitarist over Roger’s head. 

“What is Charlie he doing?” 

“Charlie’s just getting up from bed now. He’s looking around, fresh out of the shower, he’s about to go downstairs when something stops him.” 

“What stops him?” 

Liz’s voice took on a new tone of distress, something the band hadn’t ever heard before. “Charlie sees something dark, he turns around, and he falls down the stairs! The black thing-it’s a ghost!” she sounded panicked and Roger wanted to rush forward and comfort her like she’d done to him last night but Brian stopped him. 

“No, Roger. Remember it’s an experiment.” he gripped his friend’s arm, shooting Freddie a look too. The singer motioned for both of them to be quiet but it was too late. 

“Someone else there?!” Liz cried in alarm. 

“No, just me,” John gave Brian a dirty look. “how did he die, Liz?”

“The ghost drained him of his life force! Charlie’s last thought was of me, of how I have a gift and I would find out what happened to him!” Liz made an expression of pain and her breath grew short which alarmed everyone, thinking that she would go into an asthma attack. Brian turned to John, hesitating a moment but John could hear Brian’s thought like he’d spoken it clearly. 

The bassist began to rouse their friend. “Liz, the images are getting smaller, you’re moving away from them,” he paused as her panicked breathing rate dropped back a little bit. “I want you to relax now, slow your breathing down, and when I count to 3 I want you to open up your eyes and wake up.” He counted down slowly, happy to see that Liz responded to him by slowing down her breathing and gradually becoming more relaxed. “And three.” she opened up her eyes then glanced over at John. “How are you feeling?” 

“I feel drained.” the bassist put his fingers on the radial pulse in her wrist just to check and he found it was a bit faster than usual. Liz watched him idly, feeling tired from her ordeal. John gave her a concerned look as the others got up from the couch. 

“First times are hard on the person going under like that,” he empathized. “all I want you to do is to rest for now. Don’t do any work, just rest up.” the bassist directed as Freddie stood up, went over to Liz, then put his hand on her shoulder to try to comfort her a little bit. The medic put her hand over his, letting him know that she appreciated his gesture very much. He gave her an encouraging smile, going over to the others to continue what they were doing yesterday. 

“Finish cleaning out the office space at the end of the living room over there.” she directed. John, Freddie and Brian went to the far end of the living room while Roger sat on the coffee table, putting his fingers on her hand. 

“Liz? Are you OK?” 

“I’ll be OK in a couple minutes, Roger. How was it? Did I scare you?” the medic moved to sit up but Roger would not let her. 

“Just lie back,” he sat on the edge of the couch. “it was interesting. Do you remember any of it?” 

“No. In hypnosis essentially my subconscious comes to light and my conscious mind takes a backseat so to speak. That’s why I must have sounded so vague and slow like I was in a dream.”

“You did. You said that your uncle died from an encounter with a ghost. How is that even possible?”

“It’s a supernatural entity, Roger. It was never human in the first place. John can give you a more accurate picture of what that entity was but it isn’t a ghost. A ghost is the spirit of a dead person or animal come back to haunt. Dark entities are purely malevolent. They have powers we don’t so to me it makes sense that the entity drained my uncle and killed him by that. It wouldn’t register on a death certificate so they just went with natural causes because they couldn’t find anything else. To them it looked like an old man was dizzy from dehydration, may have had renal failure or something and didn’t look further into it.” 

“There’s something else going on behind those eyes, Liz. What is it?”

“Roger, after you woke me up last night with your nightmare I saw that entity above you,” she confessed. “it’s begun to prey on you by making you paranoid against us. My fear is that you’ll succumb and become the entity’s slave. I don’t want it to,-” she paused for a moment and looked at Roger with tears in her eyes. “I couldn’t bear it if we lost you.” 

Roger was deeply touched by her words as she sat up on the couch. He didn’t say anything for a long moment, his eyes were suspiciously bright as well. “I-” he paused and coughed once. “I do not want to lose anyone either, especially you. I love all of you like family.” 

“I love you too.” Liz kissed Roger affectionately. “Remember what I say in case things get harder which I think they will.” 

While they were talking John was discussing what had just happened with Brian and Freddie. “I’m sure this isn’t good for either one of them, guys. Liz is a sensitive and the entity’s already picking on Roger. It’s going to try to drive him apart from us, Liz is going to be under attack mentally and she’ll be confused from the images it’s going to send her. Those two are the most vulnerable of us all right now. We may end up battling something we can’t see or feel.” 

“What about protection?” 

“We can’t do anything right now about that, Bri. The entity is going to want to hide in darkness so we won’t be able to confront it. Once it gains enough strength it will move out into the open but we don’t want it to gain strength.” John frowned as he chucked another file into the garbage bag. It was a real puzzle; trying to get an entity to show itself without any personal risk to any of them. 

“How can we banish something we can’t see or feel?”

“Good question. I don’t want to use Roger or Liz as bait. I can’t risk them-we can’t risk them.” John answered emphatically. 

“We might have to at some point,” Freddie said softly, not liking the possibility. “let’s keep it as a last resort.” 

“Yes.” Brian agreed. “For now we keep an eye on our friends to make sure they don’t get any worse. John, if we just left now and let professional cleaners and movers here would it help?”

John turned his green eyes on his friend. “No. The entity is attached to Liz and Roger now. No matter where we go it will follow us.” 

“Shit,” Freddie swore. “I think that there are some paranormal books on the subject here. I’ll go look for them.” 

“You do that.” Brian glanced over at Liz and Roger. 

**

Just after lunch time Liz began to feel very strange. She continued to help the others in emptying out the library and the living room, tying off some garbage bags that Roger could take into the garage. The drummer did so effortlessly, hoisting up two bags and entering via the side door. Liz had told him that the garage had once been a barn that Charlie had converted thirty years ago. In the corner nearest to the garage door Roger dumped his load. 

Roger, a voice sounded, causing him to turn in all directions at once. They’re all against you. 

“That’s not true and you know it!” he put his hands to his ears like he could drown out the voice but he inwardly knew better. “Not listening!” 

You can’t escape me, the voice persisted. Roger fled the garage, coming into the living room looking agitated. 

Of course Liz noticed it first. She was standing with Brian near the daybed when Roger joined them. The medic took one look and could see that her friend was quite distressed. 

“You heard it, didn’t you?” immediately on alert as Roger stopped a little tremor in his hands. “The entity speaks unseen just to torment you and make you think that you’re going nuts.” 

The medic exchanged a look with Brian who noticed that Roger didn’t seem like himself. “All right, mate?” 

“Fine.” he said abruptly, not wanting to talk about it. 

“No, you’re not.” Liz turned firmly on the drummer. “Roger, it’s-”

“Leave it!” he shouted angrily. “I don’t want to talk about it!” Freddie and John glanced up from what they were working on. 

“Roger, that’s not you,” Liz was stubborn when she wanted be. “I think that-” 

“It doesn’t matter what you think!” 

“It’s the entity talking through you.” John approached his friend. “I think that you need to concentrate, Roger. This isn’t you!” 

A sudden wave of dizziness overtook Liz. She nearly staggered but then caught Brian’s eye as she straightened up. Freddie saw her momentary dizziness then got right up and marched up to her, taking her by the elbow and leading her away from Roger. 

“What is it, dearie?” 

“I feel faint, Freddie. I’m near Roger as he’s not in his usual mind and all I want to do is collapse.” 

“You look quite pale. You’re not used to all of this spiritual stuff,” he informed her, putting one of his hands on one side of her face. Liz smiled and leaned into his touch, closing her eyes as another wave of dizziness overtook her. “the entity.. it’s taking your energy from you.” Freddie saw Liz close her eyes in a dead faint, falling back on the daybed. 

“Guys!” Freddie shouted. “It’s Liz!”


	4. 4: Meditation

4: Meditation

“What happened?” Brian and John broke away from Roger, seeing Freddie pick up their friend and move her to the couch. The singer brushed back his friend’s hair back from her face as the others crowded around her. Roger started, seeing Liz looking a bit paler than usual in the afternoon light. Frustrated, the entity lost its grip on the drummer as his concern for Liz showed through. “Freddie, what’s wrong with her?” 

“She completely fainted. Wait, Roger-” he turned to his friend. “do you remember anything of what went on in the past five minutes?” 

Roger looked surprised. “No I don’t.” 

“You don’t remember shouting at Liz?” 

“I shouted at her?” the drummer looked aghast. Freddie picked up the couch afghan and draped it over Liz, gesturing to Brian to light a fire as the late afternoon was getting a little chilly. Crossing over to the rack which held the wood, Brian chose several logs of pine. He lit up some birchbark, tossed it on top of the logs, then adjusted the flue accordingly. Putting up the fire screen, Brian rejoined his friends. Freddie shot him a look of pure bewilderment at the situation of which he answered with one of his own. It was clear to them that they had no idea what was really going on. 

“You really don’t remember,” John shook his head. “Roger, you went out to the garage and came back a completely different person. Liz noticed you were out of sorts and when she tried to ask you what was going on you shouted at her.” 

“I did that? I-” 

“You did. Anyway, Liz fainted because she came in close proximity with you while you were possessed,” Freddie informed him. “she’s a sensitive and she’s untrained with how to deal with her powers.” 

“Is she going to be all right?” Roger leaned over her prone form, not liking how pale she looked. He pressed one hand to her cheek, nearly reeling back. “She’s so cold!” 

“She will be. I think that I can teach her a little meditation which will help her stay grounded.” meditation wasn’t really practiced by the band but when Freddie was under a lot of stress he would usually meditate to help clear his mind. 

“All right. I think that this can only help. Roger, she’s cold because it’s a paranormal or supernatural presence that stole some of her energy, that’s why she collapsed.” John agreed, clasping Liz’s hand for a long moment. “How about we finish clearing out this room?”

“How long do you think she’s going to be out for?” Roger adjusted Liz’s position, shifting her so that she was lying flat on the couch instead of being propped up. 

“One, maybe two hours tops,” the bassist responded. “we should find a way of getting her to awaken quickly.” 

“Maybe there’s a way? Is there any ammonia in the house? That will do the trick.” Brian walked over to the kitchen, raiding the pantry behind it. He emerged with a small white bottle, walking back to Liz and waving it under her nose. 

“What is that?”

“I found some smelling salts in the first aid kit. Liz would be proud of her great uncle, John. He had a big first aid kit back there.” 

Liz started to rouse a little bit, coughed a few times, then opened up one eye a little bit. John and Brian were looking down at her, Roger was behind the couch leaning in to see her, Freddie was sitting in the recliner, looking thoughtful. 

“Hey,” Roger greeted her. “Liz-”

“It’s not your fault-” she cut him off, reaching for his hand to reassure him. The drummer gave her a relieved grin as he let her have his hand, squeezing it reassuringly. “I will not blame you, Roger for what I just endured. I know it’s not you in there when the entity makes you act a certain way. I know you better than that.” 

Roger’s mind flashed back to the conversation they had the previous night. “I don’t know why the thing is picking on me so much.” 

John and Liz swapped a look. They could imagine that Roger, being more emotionally fragile, would be more susceptible to negative entities picking on him. The drummer had his bouts of insecurity but on the whole he was a good person at heart; a fabulous drummer, a great friend, and he never held grudges. Being a very laid back person only worked in his favor as he never seemed to stress out very much at all. 

Then again the entity could have been partial to blondes. Liz didn’t waste time on the particulars. She sensed Roger was having another vulnerable moment so she pulled on his hand, bringing him over to face her, sitting him on the edge of the couch. 

“Whoa, are you OK to sit up?” he fussed but she shushed him. 

“Roger, what I can tell you about the entity is that it’s a big negative presence. You’re a sweet, kind, gentle, sensitive person who loves his friends without holding back. The entity likes to choose its victims at random and you happened to be the first. The point is that we don’t love you any less and we will fight for you. Don’t feel like you’re alone because you’re not,” Liz sensed that Roger still needed some comfort so she kissed him on the cheek, bumping her nose with his. The drummer shut his eyes for a long moment, exhaling slowly. 

“Think you’ll be OK now?” Roger opened his eyes, gazing at Liz with his lips parted. He had a look of longing clearly on his face as he saw her black curly hair, her gray eyes, those pretty pink lips and wanted to kiss them. 

“I’ll be fine.” reassured by her presence, Roger inhaled then exhaled slowly. 

“All right, hon. So how about we go over the plan for the next few days? I think we all get that we’re under some kind of paranormal or supernatural attack.” 

“That we are,” John agreed, walking to the center of the living room. “Freddie is going to be teaching us some meditation. He says it will help us clear our minds and become more centered.” 

“Oh, that stuff you sometimes practice, Freddie?” Brian approached his friend. “When are we doing that?” 

“After supper tonight. I need it dark with candles so we don’t get any distractions. Liz, I’m sure meditation will help you balance out your powers more and if you come into contact with that entity again you will be more powerful so it won’t affect you as much.” 

“I’m glad that it can do that much,” Liz admitted. “I’m not going to be a help to anyone if I pass out while dealing with Mr. Negativity.” 

“We don’t like the alarm you give us when you do faint,” John glanced at the clock. “What do you think we have time for right now?” 

“I think we can get the library and this room emptied out before supper.” 

Liz made to rise but John stopped her, hand on her shoulder. “I think that you need to rest, all right? It’s only an hour or so before supper anyway. You’re recovering from a paranormal attack.” 

“To have all you guys wait on me hand and foot maybe I should get attacked more often.” she ruefully said. 

**

In that hour of time the entire first floor of the house had been emptied of Charles’s assorted paraphernalia. John warned the team about going into the garage alone so Brian and Freddie made a few trips while John and Roger did one. The bassist watched Roger like a hawk but Roger’s demeanor didn’t change. 

“Is there a way you subconsciously know that the entity is watching you?” they tossed a garbage bag into the heap. Liz was going to call the lawyer after they were done and he would call a service to come and haul the trash away. 

“Not really. It’s omnipresent in a way. I feel fine one moment then not myself the next.”

“Are you aware of the fact you’re acting out of character?”

“No. It’s like I pass out and don’t notice anything but blackness.”

“Right,” John filed that mentally for later. “I’ll keep note.” 

“John, I want you to be honest with me,” Roger said at the threshold of the house. “what’s the most likely to happen?”

John pursed his lips, not wanting to tell Roger and yet wanting him to be prepared at the same time. It wasn’t going to be an easy task to vanquish an evil force. The two of them went into the kitchen to start dinner while the bassist chose his words carefully. 

“Worst case scenario is that it gets so strong it can kill us like it did Liz’s uncle,” he hauled out a cast iron pan and turned up the gas burner. “it’s rare but it can happen.” 

“Hang on,” Roger shut the refrigerator door. “why isn’t the entity still strong from it feeding off of Charles? Why didn’t it finish us off when we walked in the door the first time?”

“Because Charles was the source of the entity’s energy. It feeds off of us that’s why it’s starting to get more powerful.”

“Oh I see.” 

In the living room Liz was still lying on the couch but now she had Brian reading to her from a small book on astronomy. Freddie was upstairs, gathering together what he would need for teaching meditation that night. 

“Oh god, Brian! Utter one more word from that book and I swear to god I will shove that up your ass!” she teased. “I hope supper is ready!” 

“Yes indeed it is!” Roger chimed in through the hallway. “As you say yourself Liz, the trough’s up!” 

At around 7 PM that night Freddie had turned the living room into his meditation studio. The singer had piled up five mounds of cushions, lit candles all around the room so it had a calming ambiance altogether. He had everyone pick a pile to sit on, sit cross legged with the backs of their hands touching their knees. 

“We will do something called guided imagery meditation,” he started up. “everyone close your eyes and pick an image like of a beach or a mountaintop that’s calming to you.” 

Freddie gave them an hour’s worth of instruction, utilizing guided imagery to help everyone center themselves and remain more calm throughout the interactions with the demonic entity which was hell bent on destroying all of them. Roger, John and Brian each chose similar images to ground themselves which were along the lines of performing. Each one of them felt powerful in their own ways on stage and emitted vibrant positive energy. Liz was different, choosing a beautiful mountaintop scene as a way of feeling grounded. Nature’s beauty always intrigued her and Freddie was no different, choosing a winter’s day. 

**

They were just winding up the session when the doorbell rang. Freddie jumped while Liz got up to answer the door. 

“I think that concludes the session,” the singer said unnecessarily. “it’s only what, 8? Plenty of time for a visit!” 

“We need to be on our guard,” John warned. “some entities can disguise themselves as human.” 

“Right.” Brian stood up and chucked the pillows back onto the furniture. Roger extinguished the candles and turned on one of the electric lights. 

At the same time Liz opened up the door and said, “Hello?”

A tall man with dirty blonde hair almost like Roger’s looked down at her from a height of five feet ten. He had bright blue eyes and was dressed casually in jeans and a t-shirt but Liz got the feeling he was a near neighbor. “Ms. Hammond?”

“Liz,” she shook his hand properly. “you are?”

“I’m Ben Harpswell, one of your uncle’s neighbors.” he looked quite young but Liz didn’t mind that. 

“Charmed I’m sure. Care to come in?” 

“Actually I’d like to take a walk around the property and show you something.” 

“Right. Let me leave a quick note with the guys and I’ll be right there.” she dashed off a quick note, leaving it on the table and left with Ben. 

They followed the split wood fence that outlined the property, their sneakers crunching down on the paved dirt road while the fragrance of pine drifted to their noses. It wasn’t dark yet but it would be in about 45 minutes, Liz reminded herself. Ben struck her as a man of few words so she took it upon herself to fill in the silence. 

“I’ve only been here once or twice in my life. Anyway, did you know my uncle?” she prompted. 

“I did quite well actually. Charlie and I met when my car broke down on the driveway back there. He was very kind about it, helping me change the tire and we got to talking. The both of us had an interest in the paranormal so we chatted on that subject for awhile.” 

“That’s great.” she filed that away mentally for future reference.

“He talked about you, sure that you had inherited the family’s gift of what he called second sight or what you could call paranormally sensitive,” Ben leveled his blue gaze on Liz which made her feel uncomfortable for a moment. “your family thought he was a crank.” 

“My family did but I never though that way,” she snapped. “my family has a bad reputation and if you think that you can make me pay for all the neglect Charlie suffered at their hands you better have another thought coming!” 

Ben seemed satisfied with her response. “I’m glad not all in your family are close minded. Anyway we are almost there to what I want to show you.” 

“Oh boy.” she grunted, unlocking the wooden gate and following the tall stranger. “What was happening to my uncle during the last week of his life? A healthy man in his seventies doesn’t just drop dead with no reason!” 

The neighbor turned and sized her up with his eyes. “You’re asking all the right questions. What did the death certificate say?” 

“It said died from early onset Alzheimer’s. It doesn’t make any sense. He was still lucid.” 

“That doesn’t make any sense,” he admitted, plodding on. “we need to find out the truth.” 

“Me and my friends will find it out. Hold up there, Ben.” 

“What?” he stopped and faced her, resting a hand on a gate post. 

“What exactly is your relationship to my uncle? He helped you out one time is all I know. I need more information so I can get a clearer picture. Spill. You wouldn’t be bothering me and my friends if he didn’t help you in other ways at least. Charlie was a nice guy and you seem like he did you many kind deeds or something.” 

“He did,” Ben affirmed. “Liz, he helped me out when my other half divorced me, willingly looked after my daughter and son while I found a steady job and could afford day care. Charlie was an art dealer and educated my daughter in art and now she’s an outstanding painter in school. He gave me a generous amount of money to put a down payment on my house. He was a good man.”

She softened up a bit towards the enigmatic stranger. “You don’t go out much do you?”


	5. 5: Ben

5: Ben

Ben smiled awkwardly. “You have Charlie’s sense of humor. My kids keep me busy. What about you?” 

“I’m a medic for the band Queen. I travel all over the place.” 

“I love them! I think your uncle said something about that the last time I saw him. From what I can tell your parents didn’t like the idea of you touring with a rock band and hated the fact that you gave up your Olympics dream.” 

“Hilarious. My parents hated the fact I didn’t want to continue gymnastics into college. Medicine fascinates me. So where are we exactly?”

“About 300 yards from the house. Look here.” Ben pointed out a tall granite facade with the word ANDREWS etched on it. Liz ran her fingers over the Corinthian columns flanking the entrance, two stone steps led up to a heavy stone door. Also flanking the door were two small urns carved out of sandstone with no plants in them. 

“Established 1895.” she read out amid the Greek revival architecture that encompassed the front. “It’s a mausoleum.” 

“That’s right. My daughter got lost out here one afternoon and scared us both. When I last saw Charlie he gave me this to give to you.” Ben put a key in her hand. “He wanted me to be with you when you opened it, just in case.” 

“I believe that. Animals could tunnel in here at any time.” she put the old key into the lock and turned it. “I’d need a light.” 

“Sorry, I don’t have one.” Ben shrugged. Liz pulled out her pocket knife, cut down an old pine bough from the tree nearest the mausoleum. 

“Good thing I stole Roger’s lighter earlier.” she split the wood until sticky pitch oozed out of the end. Liz lit the pitch which made a fine torch. Ben had to help the medic wedge the door open with their fingers then shove it aside with their shoulders; the wrought iron hinges had almost completely rusted out. “I can see why my uncle wanted you with me.” 

“I know, right!” Ben gave off an uncertain laugh. He had whittled out a torch for himself and now extended it, ready to light. Liz did so and pocketed Roger’s lighter. In the granite building both of them marveled at the stained glass window in the back which depicted a white cross in a lemon yellow background. 

“Have you been here before?” 

“Once. Charlie wanted me to help him with something down here.” 

“Down here?” 

Ben crossed the narrow little hallway and put his hand on a recessed door. It was a very old oak door with rusty hinges that screeched loudly when opened. Liz winced at the sound as he did too. “This is just the entranceway.” 

“Right.” she followed him down granite steps to a big room filled with tombs. “My family must have been loaded with money near the turn of the century. Usually they’d just put the caskets on shelves with a brass nameplate.” 

“Not here,” Ben showed her. The mausoleum had proper crypts to put the dead in, all had elaborate looking bronze inscriptions put on them. “your uncle told me your family had a fortune in combined real estate, oil drilling, and one relative had been a partner in a shipping firm.” 

“Yes that was Etienne I think. Anyway, what has this all got to do with me, Ben?” 

“You’re the last living descendant, Liz. Charlie wanted me to show you this mausoleum to help you understand why you should not ever sell the house.” 

“I get it I guess but do you know how much money this estate eats in a month? I don’t have the financial capacity to take care of a place like this.” she protested. 

“He already thought of that. Liz, he told me that there is a fortune in this room somewhere. He didn’t tell me where but he swore up and down that it’s in here.” 

“He wasn’t the type to tell tall tales. All right, I believe it.”

“We can find out about the fortune later and where it’s hidden,” Ben led her up the steep stairs and back out into the hallway. Both of them swung the ancient door on screechy hinges back into place. “in the meantime I need to tell you more about your uncle.” 

“We can chat on our way back it’s getting dark outside.” and cold too. Liz shivered involuntarily. 

“Right. During the last few months of your uncle’s life he broke off contact with me. It was so unlike him; usually we met up with each other for lunch in town or go to art galleries but he began to defer visits. He had sudden changes in his mood; unusual for a level headed guy who never seemed to let much get to him.” 

“Oh my god,” Liz paused. “he sounds like my friend Roger.” 

“Who?”

“Never mind for the moment; go on.” 

“One minute he’d be shouting and the next he would have no idea that he’d ever been shouting in the first place. Very unlike him as I say. I wondered if the Alzheimer’s was getting to him. I go to see him one day then find him at the bottom of the stairs cold and dead.” 

“You found him?”

“I did. I was so sorry to see he’d come to his end like he did.” 

“Did he have any new friends near his end? Any unusual characters?”

“He did offer to put up a young couple for the night when their ride didn’t come in time,” Ben remembered. “strange people, all goth in black.” 

“It all fits now,” Liz muttered to herself. “everything I had seen while under hypnosis adds right up.” 

“What are you talking about? Have you been having visions?”

“Let me explain,” they were in the house’s front yard by the fence now. “I didn’t have any vision but my friend John is much more informed in paranormal and supernatural than I am. Yesterday John put me into a hypnotic trance to see if I could understand and subconsciously see what happened to Charlie.” 

Ben’s blue eyes grew faintly alarmed. “What did you see?” 

“I saw a dark negative force which drained Charlie dry. A demonic entity haunted Charlie and began influencing him, turning him against you. The demon fed off of Charlie for weeks then when it was at its most powerful it was done with Charlie, causing him to fall down the stairs and killed him. It was all supernatural which was why the doctors had nothing to go on really. It makes sense to me.” 

“Liz I think that demon really did kill him,” Ben offered. “it does explain everything and he kept a fairly open mind. Have you been getting flashes in your sleep for instance of your uncle?”

“I’ve been getting something but it all goes by so fast I don’t understand any of it.” 

“Maybe your friend can hypnotize you so you can slow it down,” Ben suggested. 

“There’s something else you want to say,” Liz sensed. “what?”

“I’m only suggesting that the demon isn’t the only spiritual residence in the house.” 

“That’s a possibility. What happened with my uncle’s remains?” 

“He was cremated and the guy from the masonry place put him in a full size crypt in the mausoleum. Charlie liked to be different so he had arranged for a plexiglas window so people could see his urn with his name on it.” 

“As long as that’s what he wanted.” 

“It is,” he reassured the medic. Ben glanced up and saw a gray mist floating past them to the house. “That’s an odd phenomenon.” 

“Oh no. That’s the demon,” Liz mourned. “back for a night of hell. It gave Roger trouble right out of the box. I-oh GOD!” she shouted. “it’s come for-ROGER!” she screamed her friend’s name and took off like a scared deer, leaving Ben no option other than to chase after her.

**

Roger had begun feeling strange again about half an hour after Liz started walking the property with the neighbor Ben. The drummer sat down in the living room, going over some old documents with Brian when he began to feel a little light headed so he decided to lay down on the old couch. Freddie was sitting near the fireplace reading a book, John was tying off a garbage bag when they heard a clattering sound from the door. 

The screen door opened and shut, then was opened and shut again as a second person barged into the house. Everyone looked up to see Liz giving them all a wild eyed glance as a tall man stood behind her, looking very bewildered. 

Liz paused very briefly and zeroed in on her friend. “Roger, it’s coming for you, the demon.” 

“Say what?”

“I saw it when I was out with Ben-that’s Ben by the way. I’ll fill you all in but I wanted to make sure that you were all right. The demon moves in a gray cloud and it’s coming up here for you. Remember what Freddie said when he taught us meditation and I think you’ll be OK enough to withstand the attack.” 

“Um.. I’ll try..” dumbfounded Roger felt that words were useless in that type of situation. Liz turned around and introduced Ben to everyone else. 

The two of them briefly recapped their story to the others, Ben glossing over the mausoleum part as that was meant for family only. Liz fished in her pocket and pulled out a crucifix necklace, putting it on, trying to be prepared. 

“Roger, you’re almost white as a sheet,” Brian noticed. “what is it?” 

“The demon must be getting to him,” John glanced over at the drummer as he became visibly uncomfortable. “Liz, it fits perfectly now. Your uncle gave a night’s shelter to two Satanists who cursed him in calling forth one of the nameless demons.” 

“People have such fucked up notions of gratitude.” she growled. “My uncle didn’t deserve this!” 

“Nobody does.” Roger seemed to be undergoing an internal struggling that he could not give voice to. In a few minutes he had exhausted all of his defenses and fainted dead away. 

“Rog! I-” Freddie tried to start forward but Brian stopped him. 

“No! Don’t! The demon has a hold of him now.” John warned. “It would not be a wise idea to confront him.” 

“Don’t go near him.” Liz grabbed a hold of Freddie and Ben’s wrists to keep them away as John brought Brian back to them. 

In a flash all the lights went out, stupefying the crew. John whispered that the demon needed the electronic energy to manifest itself completely. In a second an unearthly silhouette stood up from where Roger was lying on the couch. The figure was about six feet tall with a small horn on each side of its head with bright purple eyes. It moved forward deliberately, making a dull thumping sound with each foot as it went right up to the people clustered together. 

“What is your name?” John demanded. If it had a name it could be spoken and he could banish it back to hell with no problems but the demon was smarter than that. 

“Silence!” a growl effectively silenced the bassist. “I killed this girl’s uncle in hopes that she would come here like a good little robot and sort out her uncle’s affairs. What I want is something only she can give me.” 

Liz glared at the beast but didn’t try to do anything. The demon wasn’t at all fazed by her contempt, taking one scaly finger and putting it on the side of her face for a moment. It then took the other hand and put it on her stomach for a long moment. Liz shut her eyes but it seemed to her that she could feel her belly swelling up, becoming firmer and heavier as the demonic-human hybrid life inside her grew… 

“No!” she screamed, eyes wide now. “You can’t do that to me!” 

“Oh but I can! Don’t mess about with things that are beyond your comprehension!” the demon was messing with her head; as soon as it released her abdomen from its grip she put her own hand over it protectively, relieved to find it was flat like usual. 

Another flash and the demon was gone. Liz was in disbelief and her knees buckled but someone caught her. Ben assisted her to the arm of the couch where she sat for a long moment, trying to recover her strength. John, Freddie and Brian surrounded Roger, examining him the best that they could. 

“His pulse is a bit thready,” Brian reported. “Liz?”

“Oh, um, hand me that bag there.” she went into medic mode. “The demon’s drained him pretty good and he’ll be comatose for awhile until he recovers. It takes a lot of energy to manifest like it did and fortunately this time it stopped before it drained Roger’s life force for good.” 

“That’s what happened to Charlie then?” Ben spoke up, not sure if he understood or not. 

“Yeah. I need to monitor him tonight. Brian and Freddie, will you put him to bed?” the two men did just that, realizing that Liz had to take a few moments more to recover herself. When they got back down John was asking the medic what the demon meant by something that only she could give him. 

“What’s something only women can do that men can’t?” Liz flung herself on the couch. 

“My god..” John lost some color in his face as he let it sink in. He couldn’t imagine it in a million years; Liz giving birth to something demonic. 

“Yeah. Mr. Negativity wants me to have his demonic-human hybrid baby.” 

“Outrageous!” Ben spluttered. “It’s impossible!” 

“For a demon nothing is impossible. He can possess a man’s body and fuck me, then his supernatural spunk can do the job. It doesn’t matter if we banish the demon; as long as his spunk knocks me up than he’ll have done his duty..” 

“How can we stop it?” 

“We can’t, Ben,” John spoke up quietly. “he has powers we don’t. He can infiltrate her mind and make her compliant with him while he assumes the form of a virile male.” 

“Shit.” 

“I think that sums it up.” Freddie deadpanned. “Ben, you’re more than welcome to stay the night with us if you want. Otherwise I’ll have Brian drive you back home.” 

“My ex wife has the kids so I’m staying with you,” Ben declared instantly. “I feel a duty to Charlie’s memory to protect Liz and help you eradicate the demon that plagued him.” 

“Well spoken, Ben.” 

Upstairs they walked with Ben in tow wearily. Freddie offered Ben his bed while he bunked down with John for the night. While the bassist was in the bathroom brushing his teeth Freddie asked Ben what he did for a living. 

“I’m a real estate agent,” Ben sat on the edge of the bed, accepting the robe Freddie had loaned him. “I’d just returned from a business trip and was going to tell Charlie all about it as he liked hearing my stories but I opened up the door and he was dead on the floor. Poor guy.” 

“I’m very sorry for your loss. I imagine he was a great friend to you,” Freddie empathized strongly, putting a hand on the man’s shoulder. “you can answer me something as a matter of fact.”

“What?”

“Does Liz resemble him at all?”

Ben laughed. “She shares the same open mindedness that he did, the black curly hair and the gray eyes are all him. He always said that she had spirit sensitivity.” 

“We’ve seen some evidence of that. We put her under hypnosis to try to make sense of her strange dreams and she saw pretty clearly what happened to her uncle.” Freddie got under the covers as John came out from the loo. 

In the next room Liz slid into the bed beside Roger, continually monitoring his heart rate until she was satisfied. Brian leaned over them both, asking if it would be safer to wake him up. 

“It wouldn’t do any good, Bri. Roger needs the rest. He’s going to be all right.” 

“Well good then. Good night.” he went to bed though it seemed to Liz like a long time before she actually fell asleep.


	6. 6: Demonic Insemination

Chapter 6: Demonic Insemination

During the night strange dreams came into everyone’s mind and nobody could make sense out of anything. Roger didn’t dream at all which was a relief in a way. Liz tried to focus on her dreams like Freddie had taught but the more she tried to zero in on them the more they disappeared. 

Liz only woke up once to check on Roger, unconsciously putting a hand on her belly to reassure herself that it was still flat, then as she drifted back to sleep she saw the gray smoke again. The demon knew she was powerless to fight him so he gained access to her mind, presenting himself as a handsome young man. Willingly thanks to his subtle mind manipulation the demon proceeded to have his way with her, bringing her to the absolute climax of her dreams. 

Thunder and lightning flashed in the dream as Liz sat up from the bed after her encounter. The male had vanished from her sight as she felt very satisfied and pleased with the experience. More lightning flashed as she looked down at herself and in that split second she could see something in her pelvis taking root and starting to grow alarmingly fast as her belly seemed to feel tighter.. 

Waking up, Liz felt sunshine on her face and she ran a hand through her hair. She glanced over at the clock and saw that it was after 8. Roger wasn’t in the bed beside her anymore, so she got up and did her usual morning routine, chuckling at the fact she’d become obsessed with making sure her belly was still flat. 

It was as she was putting on her favorite skirt Liz noticed a soreness where there hadn’t been one before. In her pelvis no less. She hadn’t put her shirt on so she checked herself in the mirror. There was nothing there to see; she was just as flat as ever. Something in the back of her mind felt a twinge of regret as she did want to get pregnant some day and at least experience it. “Oh for god’s sake it was just a dream!” she dismissed the sore feeling as psychosomatic and carried on, not heeding the fact that the skirt was just a little bit snug on her. 

Two hours later after she had gotten breakfast and rejoined the others in the living room John brought her up to speed on what was going on. 

“The demon wants a baby out of you. That I can’t understand at all,” nobody could. “it’s too much to comprehend-I mean why? Demons are immortal beings so why would it go to all the trouble to inseminate you and take the baby?” 

“I can’t get it either,” Liz agreed. “perhaps it wants to carry it off to another dimension or something. I can’t have an interloper inside me.” while she was talking she didn’t notice a little phenomenon taking place; her uterus was getting bigger causing her skirt to be a little more tight. 

“It doesn’t matter why,” Brian interjected. “what matters is that we prevent it from getting inside you.” the medic crossed over to the couch and sat down, hardly noticing that her little bump was starting to get in the way. Readjusting herself on throw pillows soon relieved her discomfort. 

“Hang on-where’s Ben?” the newest member of their little group was missing.

“Ben’s gone to the local library to get more information on the history of the mausoleum on the property and more about the house. He also went to get a change of clothes from his house. He’s actually pretty excited about this whole thing. Says it’s fascinating.” Freddie chimed in. 

“Why would he do that? We have all of the info necessary.” 

“He wants to be sure we didn’t leave anything out.” Roger plopped down next to his friend and kissed her on the cheek. Liz smiled gratefully, happy to see that he was no longer comatose. Everyone had told him about what went on last night so she didn’t need to go over it. 

“Very thorough. You look much better.” Roger smiled back at Liz, giving her a kiss on the forehead.

“You look preoccupied with something.” 

“I might as well out with it. I had a dream last night that a hot young guy had sex with me. I didn’t think I’d have wet dreams in a dire situation but there you go.” she flushed red, still feeling sore with a little discomfort thrown into the mix now. 

“Really? You disappeared from your bed for about twenty minutes last night,” Brian told her. “did you have gut trouble?” 

“I was gone from my bed?” she gave him a look of disbelief. “I don’t remember leaving my bed.” 

“Yeah you did.” a suspicion crossed the guitarist’s mind and he needed to confirm it or disprove it. The demon would have resorted to any means necessary to complete his nefarious deed involving possessing Liz so she wouldn’t remember what happened to her. 

Roger and John exchanged a look as Brian walked over to Liz. Without a word he sat next to her and hitched up her shirt. Liz’s belly wasn’t flat anymore; a small bump protruded out about two inches. Everyone gaped for a moment as the red flush returned to her cheeks. “That wasn’t there this morning!” she passed her hand over the bump while forcing the redness away from her face. Roger pressed his hand to the bump as well, trying to affirm for himself that it was indeed real. 

“The demon is upping the ante,” Brian pushed her shirt closed. “how did you feel this morning?”

“Very.. sated..” 

“Were you sore anywhere?” 

“Yeah.” she sighed. 

“I think that the demon is using every power he has,” Freddie proclaimed. “it’s hoping that we would kill you in order to prevent you from giving birth to whatever that thing will be. We aren’t going to do that of course. Ben’s also going to look into exorcism while he’s there.” 

“The only good thing about this is that while you’re pregnant the demon can’t hurt you until you give birth.” John tried to reassure his friend as she tucked her shirt into the skirt waist. Unfortunately her skirt didn’t have an elastic waistband so she would have to change into something else later on as she got bigger or risk embarrassment. 

“That might be sooner than you think like tonight. I didn’t have any bump this morning. Growth seems to be accelerating.” 

“Demons can do that. I think it only wants a baby because it knows how much pain you’ll be in. They seem to like physical pain more than anything,” John theorized. 

“I look like I’m fucking four months pregnant, John. I suppose a doctor visit would turn up all sorts of weirdness. It might have horns on its head.” she repressed a shudder. 

“You never know. It’ll be human in shape but demonic in the head. We’re getting ahead of ourselves right now. This entire place is pretty much cleaned out so what do you want us to do next?”

“Already? That was fast. I should show you the mausoleum that Ben showed me last night.” with the key in one hand Liz took Roger and John into the mausoleum, Freddie and Brian opting to stay behind and keep an eye out for Ben when he arrived. 

**

After lunch the trio set out to track down the mausoleum that Ben showed Liz the previous night. It was a little hard for her to remember as twilight made it difficult to see where she was going with any kind of accuracy. “This is the place,” they were down in the basement with the crypts. “It’s just hidden under the pine trees not to be an eyesore. Rather convenient for access I must say.” 

“What’s this?” Roger poked at a decorative angel statue. 

“That is the statue of Rock Of Ages, Roger. It’s a hymn.” John turned from examining Charlie’s niche in the wall. 

“That urn is completely done in bronze. Your family is wealthy.” he remarked. 

“This branch of the family was,” Liz told him. “my grandpa cut off my mom and my two aunts for being greedy as kids. Told them they needed to earn their dough not inherit it.”

“Is that why your parents pushed you to be future Olympians so they could be rolling in your wealth?” 

“Now I understand it yes. I found it in a document sometime yesterday. They’re greedy pigs.” 

The drummer was examining the base of the statue when he found a small button and accidentally pressed it. He stood back as the statue shook and sank down, locking into the base of the sculpture with a queer grinding sound. 

“What did you do, Rog?” John saw a small panel made out of mahogany about five feet square open up. Roger slid his torch over the opening and saw something that was glimmering. John peered in next and with a little laugh made Liz look in. 

“Oh my gosh!” the hidden room had some gold bars and what looked like a stock portfolio resting on a table next to an oak desk. Liz picked up the portfolio, finding several shares in various companies including the one shipping firm Ben had mentioned earlier. “This is worth several thousands of dollars and I know Charlie had been hunting for this information for years!” 

“Amazing!” 

“Well, until the dust settles on this whole demon thing the wealth has to stay here. I remember how to get in; this should be the last thing that we do.” 

“Now that you found this it means you can keep the house and property right?” 

“Yes,” Liz smiled as they locked the room back up and went into the entrance hall of the mausoleum. “I’ll be glad to be the guardian of my ancestors.” on the way back Liz noticed her skirt had gotten tighter and she had an immediate need to take it off before she burst out of it. The little thing inside me is growing, she grimly thought. 

“Good for you.” they went back to the house, not telling anyone about their finding just yet. Ben was back and looking fresh in a pair of cargo shorts and ratty old t-shirt. 

“She’s back!” Freddie noticed. “Liz, would you mind showing Ben what happened to you last night?”

“Can it wait until I change my skirt here?” she bustled off in a hurry. While upstairs she appraised herself in the mirror, noticing the now five month lump at her waist easily. Just that morning it had been flat, by ten AM it was at the fourth month stage(barely noticeable and easily missed), now you could not miss it. The soreness was still there and she wryly thought to herself that he must have been really big to leave that kind of feeling behind. 

Rifling through her luggage she found a short elastic waist skirt which she swapped out with some effort, as freeing her belly had been more difficult than she thought. Her shirt was still loose enough so that it masked the lump pretty well but soon enough there would be no way it could stay concealed. Liz kept the tails of her blue shirt unbuttoned and untied, sure that Freddie would unveil her gravid figure like a new car. With a hand on her belly-she was doing that more, she noticed, Liz walked to the staircase. 

**

“All right, ready,” she announced coming down the stairs. “did you tell him?” Ben’s eyes lit up when he saw her descend the stairs. She had the poise of a princess with dignity to match, he thought. He already knew what she was harboring under her shirt but as usual, Freddie had to embellish the situation. 

“We did.” Freddie stood behind her, ready for the grand reveal, Liz standing in front of him smirking. “Here it is! A real live demon baby!” he took the tails of her shirt and parted them with flair, revealing her little bump in all its glory. 

“Oh my god so he was serious,” Ben gaped openly. “I saw the demonic figure last night and I can’t stop doubting myself but this..” 

“Doubt no more. This morning I was a regular flat belly girl, by 10 AM I must have been what, 3 or 4 months? There was a little bump which I didn’t think too much about, and now I look like I’m 5 months gone.” 

“Five months is enough time for it to move around. Do you feel it?” 

“Not yet. I can’t get over how fast it’s growing.” something seemed to ripple through Liz’s bump in an almost serpentine way. “That’s not normal and yet I didn’t feel it.” 

“Really? It looked like it hurt.” 

“Yeah,” they went into the living room where Liz sat down on the couch. “I get the feeling if I could see inside there I’d see something vaguely humanoid but also had two horn buds on the head. This is one birth I could wait years for.” 

“Do you know how long it would be before you give birth?” 

“I’m guessing sometime tomorrow night at the rate it’s growing, Bri. We have to hurry up and bless the house.” 

“Exactly my thought,” Ben had all his tools ready. “we start with the downstairs and work our way up. We have to find the shrine the cultists left behind that enabled the demon to come through and stay here. Coming, Liz?” 

“No, I want to rest.” she lay back while the rest of the men filed out of the room and began to systematically bless the house. 

While they were doing so, Roger felt his mind drifting, himself feeling a little responsible for what had happened to Liz. In order to satisfy a nagging feeling he quietly asked Brian if he had left his bed around the same time that Liz had left hers. 

“I think that you did. I do not know for sure though.” the guitarist answered. Roger paled a little bit but he concentrated on the task at hand with his mind whirling. The drummer was sure that the demon had possessed him to have sex with Liz to get her pregnant supernaturally. It wasn’t his fault by any means and from what Liz had said she’d had a very powerful dream so she would never suspect the demon had used him. 

In the living room Liz felt a little hot so she let her belly hang out while she closed her eyes. If another person had been in the room with her they would have seen a distinct face press up against the layers of uterus, muscle and skin like it wanted to get out.


	7. 7: Blessing the House

7: Blessing the House

By the time they were done Ben climbed up the stairs to the small turret room in order to thoroughly bless the house. Freddie clambered up after him to lend a hand then both of them gawked openly at what they saw. 

“What is it?” John called. 

On their hands and knees to avoid bumping their heads, Freddie answered back, “It’s a sacrificial altar!” Satanic symbols were written in chalk on the floor, several remains of burnt candles littered the place, and a few dark stains which were once blood had been spilled from some helpless animal. 

“Why didn’t we come up here before and dispose of this?” Freddie groaned. “Fetch me a trash or shopping bag so I can throw this all away!” 

“Let’s do the blessing first so we don’t need to do it twice.” the singer didn’t understand what Ben meant but did as he said. With the blessing done, they cleaned out the small room, trashed the candles and paraphernalia associated with demonic cults. The two men climbed down from the space looking happily satisfied with the results. 

Roger was not enthusiastic about what they were doing and didn’t say anything until John asked him what the matter was back in the bedroom. 

“What is it, Rog? The demon’s gone!” 

“That’s what I’m worried about. I think the house doesn’t matter to the demon, guys. You said as long as it had a foothold in the house it can hang around and harass us.” 

“Yes we did. How’s this any different?” 

“Bri, the demon still has a foothold in this house just not what you think. It’s Liz.” 

“Damn you’re right.” 

“The demon knew that we’d expel him from the house and he’s pinpointed Liz because she’s a woman and is capable of creating life. It sensed that we can’t do anything to hurt a pregnant woman and by extension it. I’ve never heard of any kind of exorcism being done on a pregnant lady before so it knows while it’s still inside Liz it’s pretty much invincible.” 

“Well, she won’t stay pregnant forever from what I’ve seen,” Ben tried to reassure them. “once she gives birth to whatever’s in her we can force the demon away.” 

“You seem pretty optimistic, Ben.” Brian remarked rather darkly. John caught on to what the real estate agent was saying quickly. 

“Ben here is saying that this is a last effort or close to last effort to stay with us in this dimension by knocking up Liz. It is temporary at least. She can’t stay pregnant forever so once it’s out, we can still banish it. The demon’s just prolonging the inevitable, taking refuge inside our girl’s uterus for now.” 

“Are we really sure about that?” Freddie was skeptical. “How can we be sure that it’s power won’t double while it stays inside her?” 

“Right now it’s a balancing act,” John said confidently. “when it was out here it was draining the life off of Roger when it possessed him and now while it’s inside Liz’s belly it has to prevent draining her life or energy in order to sustain itself. More than half of her energy is going to the demon fetus if you will for obvious reasons.”

“Speaking of which we should check on her.” it had grown dark outside that afternoon and chilly in the living room. Liz was lying on the couch diagonally with her small five month belly peeking out from behind her shirt. “You’re looking all right.” 

“I feel OK for now.” the men surrounded her. “That’s something, right?” 

“Yeah it is.” John sat next to her. “What’s it like?”

“It’s not that different except the growth is accelerated. By this time tomorrow night I think I’ll have given birth and will get my body back. Though I have to say I don’t mind being pregnant like this.” 

“Has it moved?” 

“Not yet. Remember this isn’t normal and I don’t want any attention diverted to it. It’s not a real fetus in there.” 

“True, but we’ll still want to put our hands on it.” Liz giggled, lying down in John’s lap. 

“Have at it then,” she bared her little belly. “I can still see my feet so it’s not that bad.” 

**

That night after everyone retired for bed the gray smoke reappeared, emanating from Liz. The smoke fully separated itself from Liz’s uterus where it had been hiding, leaving her belly still round and firm to the touch, then settled into Roger’s mind. The drummer’s eyes opened up without a shred of consciousness behind them and he stood up like a robot. 

“Brian, I need you, John and Freddie for something.” the demon lied through Roger. Both of them went with Roger willingly down to the cellar of the house. 

“Are you sure you need us to-” the demon made a furtive movement, snatching up a syringe when they weren’t looking and ramming it into Brian’s shoulder, fully depressing the plunger. The guitarist dropped like a struck horse; Freddie soon followed along with John. Three crude wooden boxes shaped like caskets were lying nearby so the possessed drummer put his friends into them. He’d given them enough of the drugs to knock them down for several hours, then the demon planned a ritual human sacrifice. 

Back upstairs the demon checked on Ben who were sleeping soundly. The demon had separated out the two weakest of the group, Freddie and Brian, for the sacrifices he had in mind. Returning Roger to bed the demon put Roger into a deep sleep so he wouldn’t remember anything of that night. 

Once his lackey was comfortably asleep again, the demon separated itself from the drummer’s mind via the gray smoke, then hung in the air for a long moment, noticing that Liz had turned on her side away from her friend. The demon smirked to itself then in order to see better used it’s infrared vision to make his victim’s enlarged uterus light up. 

It was like a home away from home to the demon. The gray smoke wafted over her pelvis and began to disappear inside it. Several hours later Liz’s uterus grew out to the six month mark. 

** 

The next morning Ben got up first, thinking about his late friend. He took a shower, put on his cargo shorts, sneakers and a striped blue and white t-shirt. Charlie had been such a good friend to him during the five years he’d known him; fronting him the money to go back to school to become a real estate agent, offering a sympathetic ear when his marriage was in trouble, etc. Ben still remembered the time when his divorce was finalized, Charlie insisted that he come over and threw him a surprise happy divorce party. 

That was the kind of guy that Charlie was. Serious with money, a good art dealer, but he had a fun streak in him a mile wide. He’d have been a good dad, Ben thought wistfully. Charlie was fantastic with Ben’s kids, 9-year-old Valentine and 7-year-old Max, telling them stories and playing games. Ben still remembered that Charlie had taught his kids how to play gin rummy. 

“Where’s Freddie and Brian?” even in death Charlie had still been giving Ben a final surprise. He loved Queen a lot and so did his kids, so he was very surprised to hear a few months ago that Charlie’s great niece worked for the band. He had wanted to meet her and he did, albeit through unfortunate circumstances. 

Roger was downstairs getting breakfast started and Liz was in the shower. The medic rubbed soap all over her bump that had somehow gotten bigger in the night. She was rather happy about being pregnant and did enjoy some parts of the experience. Now she knew how uncomfortable it was as her center of gravity was thrown off. Being supernaturally pregnant Liz did not know morning sickness as her pregnancy was accelerated to about 48 hours all told. She knew of some expectant moms who would be envious of that fact! 

Now none of her tops were going to fit her just right. There were a few items of clothing in Charlie’s closet that they hadn’t gotten rid of yet and he had been a large man. Liz found an old tribal print shirt to put on over the skirt she’d worn yesterday. Her pants weren’t going to fit her now so she thought for a moment, rifled through the closet, and found an old pair of cutoff jeans that managed to fit her perfectly. 

“Still not moving in there, eh?” she ran her hands down the sides of the belly. “Even if you are a demon you can at least act a little more like a human fetus. I want to feel some nice gentle kicks and shit.” 

Still nothing. Liz made her belly jiggle and bounce up and down for a few minutes. Nothing else happened. “So much for perks.” she pouted and went downstairs. 

“Anyone know what happened to Freddie or Brian? Where’s John?”

“Don’t know where they went. Maybe they walked into town. It’s not far from here.” Ben drained his coffee mug. “What are we doing today?” 

“We have to wait for nightfall. I’ve grown some more so it won’t be long before I go full term and push this sucker out. We should do an inspection of the house and make sure we aren’t leaving anything behind. Must say, demonic or supernatural pregnancy aside I have enjoyed my time here.” 

“I’m glad,” Roger told her affectionately, his hand on her shoulder. “I’m glad we got to meet you, Ben. You’ll have to come see us on tour sometime.” 

“I would love that!” Ben agreed enthusiastically. 

“There’s a series of shows coming up someplace in England,” Liz remembered. “I’ll have to send you a ticket.” 

“Great!” the trio went over the house except the basement, Liz making notes on what she wanted to update and change with her newfound wealth. 

“This paneling will have to go-it’s all rotted, that library is freaking magnificent and I think a nice baby grand or upright piano would look good there too. We need to put in a small TV for entertainment, and I think a nice pool table would look good in the library. It’s certainly big enough for an upright piano and pool table. The living room does need a TV if we get decent reception.” 

The rest of the morning was devoted to making notes of what needed updating in the house. They had lunch, wondered where the others went again, then Roger went upstairs to start hauling clothes out of Charlie’s old bedroom and put them into the garage. 

“By the way where did you find that shirt?” he asked on his way back. Since the demon was hiding inside Liz’s uterus they had mutually agreed it wouldn’t be an issue to go back into the garage alone. 

Sprawled on the couch Liz gave him a little grin. “I found it upstairs. I got a little too big and was desperate.” 

“Nice job,” Roger sat down next to her. “Ben’s going to clean up the mausoleum a little bit. How are you feeling?”

“Uncomfortable and still no movement. That’s the part I wanted to experience the most.”

“Well it’s not human so you should not get your hopes up.”

“I know. I have been enjoying being pregnant in spite of everything though.” Liz and Roger chatted nervously, wondering about what was going on that night and how it would all go down. 

In the midst of their conversation Liz felt something shift inside of her and she put her hand on where she felt the shift, waiting in anticipation. Roger gave her a funny look which she ignored. “I felt something move, Rog.”

“Did you? Is it finally waking up?” 

“I think so,” Liz felt something shift again and before she knew it the clear indent of a hand stretched itself hard against her. “with a normal baby you wouldn’t get such distinct lines like that.” 

“My god.” 

“I know. What time is it?” 

“Around 3, why?” 

“I am just thinking about what time approximately that I am due. I’m six months now, in another hour or two I’ll be 7 months, then by 9 I’ll be 8 months, then by midnight I will be full term or in other words when the show goes down.” 

“You must be nervous.” 

“That’s an understatement, Roger. I am terrified at what’s going to fall out of me between the hours of midnight and 3 AM.” Liz’s belly shifted again, shaking her whole uterus. A faint feeling of frustration came into her mind and she laughed, putting her hands on the big bump. “I had a feeling direct from the demon right then and there.” 

“You can read its mind?” 

“My spirit sensitive mind can pick up on these things I think. The demon’s been blocking me from its mind because it knows that I can pick up on it. It’s frustrated because it’s trying to move one way and keeps getting tangled in the cord.” 

“When does it go head down?”

“Any time now.” Roger thought of something, going over and bringing Liz’s ever present medical bag with him. 

“I want to detect a heart rate so we can determine if it really is taking the shape of a human in there,” he explained. A few minutes later he gazed at her, not baffled but amazed in a way. “there’s no heartbeat whatsoever.” 

“I told you it was supernatural.” 

“Yeah you did. It’s still bound by the laws of my body which is what happened as soon as it went inside me. It has a cord and all the attachments therein but it doesn’t need a heartbeat and is struggling within the confines of my body.” 

“It had underestimated you!” Roger laughed. 

“Yep it did! My body’s treating it like it would any other pregnancy and the demon’s influencing it to speed up. The body says OK but it still has to obey. I’m in charge or my body is.” 

One hour later Roger was in the library, Liz was reading a book in the living room, Ben was still outside tidying up the front lawn. The medic felt another push and looked down, seeing the clear indent through her uterus and skin. She felt her whole belly quaking for a long moment and when she looked down again she could see the imprint of a face pushing out hard. 

“Oh god that hurt!” she gasped, knowing exactly what was going on inside her now. Liz had just passed the apparent 7th month mark and it was time for baby demon to turn head down to get ready for the birth. Baby demon did not like that one bit and was trying to resist but her uterus forced it to get into position by forceful muscular contractions. 

“I think I’ll need to rest up more in order to get ready for tonight.” she pushed her shirt out of the way so her belly loomed large, put her feet up and began to doze off.


	8. 8 Showdown

Chapter 8: Showdown

Liz stirred uncomfortably on the couch. Her belly was making it impossible for her to be happy anymore. A forceful kick from inside reminded her of that one element that still stayed the same-the movement. She pulled back her shirt and clearly saw the indent of raised flesh, grinning she put her hand over it so that the demon pulled back inside. A few moments later it punched hard and kept its fist up so that she could see it through her belly. “My god this demon’s active.” 

“How are you doing in there, Liz?” Roger called to her, crossing from the threshold over to the couch where she was lying. 

“It’s moving a lot now.” several kicks pounded her ribcage. “where are the guys?” 

“Ben and I can’t find them. The car’s still here and we’ve been combing the place.” Roger shook his head. “Is the demon telling you anything?” 

“It’s always midnight when the shit goes down,” Liz put her hands on both sides of her belly as Roger looked down at her. “why is it always midnight?”

“Because that’s when they can hide in darkness like cowards.” a mighty thump from inside made Liz gasp in pain as Roger started involuntarily.

“Demon didn’t like that.” 

“Sorry, love.” 

“You’re fine. I really wish I could see inside me to know what we’re dealing with.” 

“But it isn’t human. There’s no heartbeat or anything. You should be going full term in a few minutes.” Roger informed her, checking his watch. 

“Oh joy. I’ll have a circus going on under this tent,” Liz retorted. “wonderful.” 

Roger smirked as Liz’s senses went on high alert. The demon finished pounding her innards, a strange surge of energy shot through her uterus. For some reason they could see shadows inside her as the demon stirred, certain that something was about to happen. The medic’s belly grew out even more; there was a red light emanating so both of them could clearly see a humanoid shape with a cord attached to it. Amid the mass of crimson blood vessels a face glared through with white eyes and several growths on its head and back. 

The drummer yelled and reeled back while Liz screamed. All of her resolve broke and she began trying to make the belly flat with her hands. “Get out of me!” 

“Whoa, Liz!” Roger grabbed her hands before she could hurt herself. She looked at him, wild eyed with fear, panting from the shock. “Slow down your breathing before you have an asthma attack.” 

“It’s this THING inside me, I have to get it out!” 

“Calm down!” he pressed her hands together. “You’ll stress yourself out even more.” 

Liz leaned into Roger’s shoulder, a few tears streaming from her eyes. “I’m so scared, Roger.”

“We all are,” the drummer reassured her. Roger put his arm around her and kissed her cheek. “as long as we’re able to protect you we won’t let anything happen to you, all right?” 

The light slowly died away as the humanoid figure resumed the face down position so the horrible face was now firmly buried in Liz’s pelvis. Her figure grew out a bit to the 9th month size, firming up more and the phantom weight that was the demon settled down on her bladder. She felt some pressure from the head but it wasn’t too bad. “Hard to believe whatever’s inside me is coming out.” 

“It’ll probably be an hour or two more.” Roger predicted. As they watched, a foot popped up that looked human enough. Liz touched it to press it back down, seeing a shadow as it receded from view. 

“Ow!” 

“What?”

“It got hung up in my ribcage.” a big shadow of an arm disentangled itself from her ribs and settled back down. With Roger by her side Liz needed some comfort so she adjusted herself the best she could and sat next to her friend who took her upper body in his arms. The drummer wished that he could ease Liz’s burden but he had to be content with giving her as much support as she wanted. 

“I’m so scared of all of this,” she muttered. “I’m afraid I’m going to die, Roger.” he couldn’t reassure her on that front, not knowing what was going to happen. The drummer’s response was to hug her tighter and kiss her on the cheek.

**

Later on that night Ben was hunting through the library for Freddie, John or Brian, trying to get some evidence of where they had gone. The real estate agent had combed through the property with Roger’s help, even searched the mausoleum but nothing was forthcoming. He was rapping the walls, checking for any secret passages Charlie hadn’t told him about when he saw a book fly off of a shelf and land at his feet. 

“The hell?” books flying randomly-he’d need John to tell him what was going on. Stooping down he picked up the book and looked at the cover, wiping off a layer of dust. The title was Rituals of the Occult. 

“This might give me some answers.” he sat down and perused it. “demonic entities usually reside on the lower plane of existence close to humans. They emerge through a portal performed by the occult and unless the portal is closed properly the entities will not return to their own realm. When the demonic entity feels threatened it will resort to any means necessary to save itself. If the entity is attached to a residence where there are women present it will threaten to inseminate one of them. The way that is achieved is by the woman having vivid dreams to distract her from the demon actually impregnating her. The woman is capable of creating life and is thereby able to contain the demon for an undetermined amount of time.” 

“Tell me something I don’t know!” Ben said impatiently, flipping pages. “Blah blah, the demon can accelerate pregnancy to some degree but in all cases the maximum is two days before she is able to give birth… It has been noted that the uterus of demonically pregnant women are somewhat bigger than of normal ones..” 

“This is bullshit!” he flung the volume aside, rushing into the living room. “Roger! Liz!” 

The clock was chiming 12 when he entered, reminding everyone that there wasn’t going to be any sleep that night. When Ben dashed into the living room he saw Liz lying on the floor unmoving. 

“She’s completely out. Roger!” Ben put his two fingers on the carotid pulse in her neck. “At least she’s alive. Can you hear me, Liz?” 

Roger loomed in the doorway, his blue eyes clouded completely over with blackness. When Ben looked up he saw the drummer right above him. “Roger, we have to get her to the hospital-” he spied the blackness and turned white, knowing what it meant. “oh shit!” he received a blow on the back of the head, rending him unconscious. 

Several minutes later Ben groaned as he opened up his eyes blearily. He put a hand to the welt on the back of his head, knowing he’d be getting a headache a little later on from that one. The real estate agent saw a shallow wooden box next to him on the old cement floor and looked into it warily. 

“Freddie!” the singer looked like he was dead. John and Brian were lying in identical boxes, all of them practically comatose. Ben saw a few syringes nearby but didn’t touch them, guessing that they had all been given overdoses of a drug or drug cocktail. Freddie was cool to the touch but Ben could make out a pulse on all of them. 

“Freddie!” he tried to rouse them but none of them were able to respond to him. Ben rubbed his eyes then focused on a still form lying on the floor about ten feet away from them. Liz was faceup, her clothes had been stripped from her and she was wearing a bright red sheet. Roger was lighting candles in some odd configuration near her feet. 

“Roger! Come on, you have to help her!” Roger was still in there somewhere. He put a hand on Liz’s belly and the flesh rippled and contorted in a way that should not have been possible. The demon possessing Roger crouched at Liz’s feet, hoisting up the sheet and proceeding to deliver her. 

It was a silent experience. The demon did not say a word, peering underneath the sheet as the humanoid head began to protrude. Gradually Liz started to recover consciousness, becoming aware that something was going on. Her instinct took over completely so she bore down hard and responded to her body’s urging her to push. Ben watched, getting as close as he dared, but neither he nor Liz saw what she had given birth to. 

“Shit!” Liz’s eyes darted over to Ben. “Come on, Freddie, Brian, John! Wake up! Liz needs you!” 

A tingling on the back of his neck distracted him for a moment. Putting his hand up to his wound he discovered that he was bleeding slightly. For some reason there was a gentle gust of wind in the basement that blew over the three unconscious bandmembers. Brian was the first to give an audible groan and sit up. 

“Bri!” Ben called weakly. “Liz needs you!” 

“Oh god!” the guitarist got up out of his box, seeing Liz looking pale and shaking from the cold. “You’ll be all right, Liz!” he glanced up to see Roger over her with a knife, muttering something indecipherable. His head still fuzzy he fell back down as Freddie gave a cough then swore. John wasn’t far behind, awkwardly swinging his legs out of the box and promptly falling to his knees. The bassist put his head in his hands, trying to stop the room from dancing in front of his eyes. 

“Roger!” Liz tried one last ditch attempt before the demon killed her. “I forgive you for this! I love you!” demons didn’t understand the concept of love so she figured that might at least stall him. What would help bring Roger out and banish the demon from him? Ben met her eye and he sent her a nonverbal message. She understood completely, giving him a sly wink. 

Knowing they were in no state to help their friend, Freddie, John and Brian were on the floor next to Ben in a cluster as Liz let out a scream. Writhing in pain, Liz became short of breath as she peered up at Roger through eyes that were gradually closing. “Roger.. make it quick. I can’t hold out any longer.. If you love me you’ll.. kill me..” The medic gasped again as she felt her strength go flying away in all directions. The bit of Roger still behind his eyes fought the demon as Liz closed her eyes and fainted dead away. 

“My god, Liz!” John attempted to get up to help her but Freddie grabbed him around the waist. 

“No! We can’t help her now.” Ben shushed the bassist, his eyes never leaving Roger as he knelt beside Liz. 

He hurt my best friends! He hurt Liz, the closest thing I have to a girlfriend! Roger’s inner monologue ran on. Get this demon out of my mind! I hate him; I want him gone! He’s been picking on me from the beginning! The drummer closed his eyes and summoned up happy memories of him and his friends, hoping to drive the demon out. Roger surrounded himself mentally with a light that only the love of his friends could cast and smiled when he felt the demon weakening.

The other men stared at him for a long moment, then Ben looked down to find a piece of paper that turned up right against his hand. He picked it up, seeing the paper had a Latin phrase on it with the scrawled title at the top, BANISHMENT SPELL. 

The real estate agent shouted out the spell the best he could and for a split second the demon and Roger could be seen simultaneously. A thunderous roar shook the house as the demon was sucked out of their dimension and immediately a calming feeling enveloped everyone. Freddie found he was able to stand up now, offering his hand to his friends. The house somehow felt less sinister, less imposing than it had been since they’d first set foot in it. 

Ben stood up, making sure that the rest of the band were all right then they turned towards where Liz was lying. 

**

Roger fell to his knees and slumped on his side, gasping loudly. He shivered all over from the shock, not hearing his friends rushing over to his side. Blackness started seeping into his vision as his friends talked but none of it was sinking in. The drummer began to have tunnel vision but still he reached at Liz, saying her name a few times. 

“She’s freezing cold.” someone picked her up as Roger was hoisted up to his feet and guided out of the basement. 

“Careful,” Brian cautioned as they found a set of stairs at the back of the room. “Roger? Can you hear me?” 

He gave no evidence of having heard his friends. “Freddie, you might want to help him out on the stairs there. Anyone know where these go?” the singer helped Roger mount the staircase and get to the top of it. John poked at the baseboard, finding a switch that was on the side of the door molding which swung open. 

“All right, Roger we’re upstairs. Sleep now.” Freddie reassured him, helping him lie down on the couch. The singer stood up and turned around. “Oh, we came out of behind the fireplace!” 

Brian put Liz down on the floor as John began to start a fire to warm her up after shutting the door. The guitarist observed that the medic was completely stark naked under the red sheet so he went upstairs to grab her warmest pajama set. Freddie put a fleece blanket on Roger to help him sleep off his experience while Ben helped John and Brian put warmer clothes on Liz. 

“It’s going to be awhile before these two wake up,” John told them. “both of them are in total shock right now. Liz’s been through a physical catastrophe and Roger’s was all mental; it will be awhile before they return to their old selves.” 

“It’ll be awhile before any of us return to normal,” Ben muttered. “I love an adventure but this was a little much!” 

Brian chuckled at that remark, coming into the room with armloads of blankets. “I don’t know about any of you but I don’t want to be alone tonight. Come on, let’s bed down in front of the fireplace where we can be together and warm.” 

“I’ll agree to that.” they raided the couches for cushions, John curled up with Liz to keep her warm, Roger kept the couch, Ben was between Freddie and Brian which he didn’t mind. 

Several hours later John was awakened by a small breeze which awakened Ben as well. The two of them watched as a silvery white figure coalesced in front of Liz. John heard a tiny gasp from Ben as he recognized the figure. It must have been Charlie, the bass player reasoned, observing the ghostly form. Charlie was a fat balding guy who was leaning over his grand niece on the floor, extending a hand to her midsection. John saw a warm pink light emanate which was absorbed by Liz and almost instantly her complexion lost the ghastly pale look and turned light pink. She inhaled, exhaling a pink mist that Charlie smiled upon seeing. 

The ghost seemed satisfied with Liz because he moved on to do the same thing with Roger. John discreetly checked his friend’s pulse which was in the normal range; before it had been a little thready. 

Charlie put his hands together, moving back in front of Liz and John again, then gave a smile to Ben with a nod. The real estate agent felt appreciation coming over him from Charlie; he felt a tear fall out of one of his eyes. The ghost never said a word but his expression spoke volumes. Clasping his hands together he disappeared from view. 

**

Everyone slept late the next morning to nobody’s surprise. John, Freddie and Brian did remember being lured down to the basement with Roger and suddenly dropping to the floor in a dead faint but they did not hold it against them in any way. Liz roused fairly easily after her ordeal; she did not remember much of what went on last night. Roger gave her a sweet kiss on the cheek but he wasn’t ready to tell her anything just yet. 

“Trough’s up!” Brian rattled a pan the way Liz always did to them. 

“So what do you think about the stocks?” the medic was discussing Charlie’s stocks and portfolio with Ben. The two of them began to pack away the files in a container that Liz had brought with her as John set a stack of plates on the table. 

“I think since you’ve had them since the turn of the century now they would turn a very good profit if you sell. The market’s really good about now.” he said honestly, not mentioning the fact that he had been thinking of expanding his real estate business. Before Charlie died Ben was going to ask him to come in as a partner. 

“I think… I will give you a nice cut of this shipping stock it and invest in your firm a little bit.” Liz signed over a share of the stock and handed it to Ben. “This should be enough to expand a bit if you want to.” 

“Aw, thanks.” he was touched. “Send me a concert ticket?”

“Sure. What’s your home address?” Ben wrote it in her little black book along with his phone number. “I’ll stay in touch,” she promised. 

“You better.” he teased. 

Out in the yard Brian cuffed Roger on the shoulder. “Are you feeling all right, Rog? I can drive for you if you’re too tired.” 

“I’ll be all right. I can hardly believe what happened to me last night-and her! Damn!” 

“It’s going to take some time for all of us to process it,” the guitarist said wisely. “we will come back stronger from our experiences. But the bright side is we’re all fine, you’re not under possession anymore, and Liz isn’t pregnant supernaturally anymore either.” 

“That and we made a good friend.” 

“That we did.” Brian smiled. The band and Liz said goodbye to Ben who promised to take care of the place for them and saw them off. 

“I’ll help to take care of Liz, Charlie.” he promised to the sky. The real estate agent locked up the place and went home to his two children, thinking that there might be more adventures with Liz and the band in his future. 

“That Ben is a nice guy,” Brian said mildly as they drove down onto the main street. “I hope we see him again.” 

“Me too,” Freddie agreed wholeheartedly. “he seems like fun. Perhaps we can vacation here and invite him along sometime.” 

Roger didn’t say anything but he smiled. The drummer felt surprisingly good after the ordeal he had suffered; he had been completely drained and barely able to walk last night. He thought that he’d sleep much later than he actually had but he’d been able to wake up at a reasonable hour and actually felt good. During some time in the night Roger could have sworn he’d seen a pink light but he had no idea why. Maybe it correlated to how good he felt that day but that was only speculation. Roger didn’t care anyway; he felt pretty good and mentally he had never felt better. 

Liz felt similarly happy. She glanced over at Freddie and poked him in his ribcage playfully. The singer recognized her happy spirits and engaged in it, tickling her back and making her beg for mercy. John rolled his eyes but he had a big grin on his face. 

“Oh, you don’t have a belly on you anymore so you’re harder to get a hold of!” Freddie teased, grabbing her arms and tickling her even more. 

**

After stopping by a drive through that night for some fast food, the band and the medic arrived late to their own house. Liz wearily dragged her backpack and suitcase through the doorway, unpacked, then threw her dirty clothes into the washer as did everyone. 

She had just gotten changed into her bathrobe when there was a knock at her door. Roger entered, giving her a hesitant look. He sat down on her lounge chair underneath the big picture window and gestured for her to join him. 

Liz did with no reluctance. “What is it, Rog?” 

“What do you remember of last night?” 

“Not much. I remember seeing that hideous demon somehow reflected in my belly before I gave birth, I was knocked out, and I woke up on a cold damp floor. I was in a lot of pain and I saw you but it wasn’t you,” Liz passed her hand over her flat stomach, remembering how much it hurt. Her gaze became distant but Roger was patient. “I went through what could be called labor but it wasn’t. The pain wasn’t as intense as I expected it to be. I felt, well it, go through me and that was all. I don’t even know what it looked like or where it went.” 

“Really? I don’t remember seeing it ever. The demon had possession of me so I don’t remember anything. In fact you begging me to mercy kill you was the first thing I do remember.”

“So that’s how you started the fight with the demon.” 

“Yeah. I was in some pain but not much. Ben gave me an idea to really dramatically pull at your heart and put it on thick. It brought you back to the light so to speak.” 

“Can’t thank you enough, Liz. You saved my life.” there was a sweet look in Roger’s eyes as he tilted his head to one side, lips slightly parted. “you know I’d fight for you and the others.” 

“I knew you would. Rog, I was never so terrified,” she confessed, her eyes getting brighter. “I was taking a huge risk but that demon would have killed me if you-” 

“Whoa, hey, hang on,” Roger took her hands. “everything turned out for the best. I could not have fought the demon without you.” the drummer took Liz in his arms, giving her a hug and allowing her to cry a little bit. The medic accepted the embrace willingly, the whole nightmarish experience flying before her eyes. 

“What are you thinking of now?” Roger asked, picking Liz up and putting her down on the bed so she could be more comfortable. 

“That I have such wonderful friends.” she pulled away from his side, looking at him now with clear eyes. Roger grinned, kissing her on the lips for a long moment. The two of them made out for a long moment until both of them felt their eyes closing. 

“Goodnight, Liz.” there were a lot of things Roger wanted to say to her but forgot all of them. 

“Night, sweetie.” the medic’s eyelids closed as she surrendered to sleep. The drummer snuggled up with her, kissing her one last time before sleep took him too.   
THE END


End file.
